A consortium led by the Ricketts family, one of four prospective new Chelsea owners, have pulled out of the race to buy the London club.
The quartet looking to succeed Roman Abramovich had until Thursday to submit their final bids to New York merchant bank Raine Group, who are running the process.
The Ricketts’, who own the Chicago Cubs baseball team in the States, had partnered with American billionaires Ken Griffin and Dan Gilbert in an attempt to purchase the Premier League side but a statement released on Friday confirmed they had decided against taking their efforts any further.
The Ricketts’ interest had been met with opposition by some Chelsea fans on account of historic emails sent by patriarch Joe Ricketts in 2009 but the family were confident they had largely won that battle after a series of positive meetings with supporter groups.
Sources close to the Ricketts’ insist the decision to withdraw from the bidding process is unrelated and claim they were simply unable to reach agreement to go ahead with a final offer.
Standard Sport understands the issues related to a failure to agree on terms among the consortium set up by the Ricketts family, which included hedge fund billionaire Griffin.
“The Ricketts-Griffin-Gilbert group has decided, after careful consideration, not to submit a final bid for Chelsea FC,” a statement read.
“In the process of finalising the proposal, it became increasingly clear that certain issues could not be addressed given the unusual dynamics around the sales process.
“We have great admiration for Chelsea and its fans and we wish the new owners well.”
The Ricketts’ withdrawal leaves the race between the consortiums put together by Todd Boehly, Sir Martin Broughton and Steve Pagliuca to buy out Abramovich.
