There is discontent among groups bidding to become the next owners of Chelsea Football Club because of a perceived favouritism being shown towards the Ricketts family after chairman Bruce Buck helped to facilitate a meeting between the family and Paul Canoville, the club’s first black player, to discuss previous comments.
As first reported by The Times, and since independently verified by football.london, Buck played an intermediary role in organising a meeting that took place last Thursday, hours before the shortlist to takeover from Roman Abramovich was confirmed.
The meeting with Canoville and Tom Ricketts, who is heading the bid to buy the club, was intended to smooth things over after the former player tweeted that he "seen and heard enough" from the prospective buyer and was "saying a big fat anti racism no to the Ricketts bid."
READ MORE: 'Football and crypto is inevitable but don't get your grandmother involved'
A significant number of supporters have campaigned against the Chicago Cubs owners becoming the club's next custodians, pointing to old Islamophobic comments made by the patriarch Joe in addition to two of his three sons.
Last week Pete Ricketts, the governor of Nebraska, published a letter confirming that he would be seeking to make abortion illegal in the state depending on a Supreme Court ruling, while another sibling, Todd, has been admonished for referring to coronavirus as "the kung flu".
The club’s sale is being overseen by the Raine Group, a New York-based merchant bank that has an existing relationship with the Ricketts family.
An unnamed source close to another bid told The Times: "Why has Bruce helped Ricketts to organise this meeting? It’s a joke. He’s actually helping them to cleanse their reputation when we have all been told we can’t speak to the Chelsea executive until we have the opportunity to meet them next week. We see it as a breach of the rules of the process; a failure to follow the instructions."
There are four groups vying to takeover: the Ricketts'; a group led by LA Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly; a bid featuring Sir Martin Broughton, a former chairman of British Airways; and Atalanta part-owner Stephen Pagliuca. They have been told that final offers must be made by April 11 with Raine intending to approach the government a week later to have the terms of the club's operating licence amended. It is hoped that the new owners can be in place by early May.
