Prospective owners of Chelsea Football Club are set to be thrown in at the deep end during their first full term in office, should their bids prove successful. Several groups have submitted bids to buy the west London club, including Todd Boehly, Sir Martin Broughton, Nick Candy, and the Ricketts family.
A large section of the Blues fanbase has liked Boehly's consortium, which comprises Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss and business partner Jonathan Goldstein. The part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers - an American professional baseball side who have won three national titles in the last five years - has also lined up Chelsea fans Daniel Finkelstein and Barbara Charone as proposed non-executive directors.
After an initial bid between £2bn and £2.5bn for the west London side, Boehly improved his offer to the Raine Group amid growing competition from competitors who flirted with a fee closer to £3bn just before the deadline slammed shut on March 18. Now that the deadline has passed, Raine Group is deciding which offers they will shortlist.
