More bids are confirmed for Chelsea ownership: New owner may be named soon

Chelsea still sits on the 3rd spot of the English Premier Ladder. Despite the team’s great performance this season, it’s still facing a lot of issues that not only affect them but also their fans.

While fans are still supportive of their favorite club as they show up for Chelsea matches and place bets on them on the best betting site in Nigeria, many are still quite bothered by what will happen to the team, especially after the drama with its now-former owner, Roman Abramovich.

The British government has ordered Abramovich’s assets to be frozen. Initially, many thought that this may be the end for the team but the government has spoken and said that they will allow the sale of Chelsea instead.

With the sale of the team allowed, the club and the fans can now breathe better. This somewhat ensures that Chelsea will only have to wait for its new owners before things go back to normal for them. It’s no secret that the club is greatly affected by the sanctions imposed on Abramovich.

It was reported that there were already employees who were let go because of this. The club is also only allowed to have a certain budget per game and travel. How the team could earn has also been limited. And so, the sale must go through soon so that the troubles will be lessened.

Based on recent reports, the US Bank handling the club’s sale, The Raine Group, should be able to announce the preferred bidder to be forwarded for government approval by the end of this week. There are a few bidders who have already come forward with their interest to purchase the team.

There’s the consortium formed by Todd Boehly. He’s partnered with Clearlake Capital, Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss, and Jonathan Goldstein who is a property entrepreneur. It’s not the first time that Boehly will be bidding for the club. He already tried to do so in 2019 but Abramovich turned him down.

There’s also Nick Candy who is a property developer in the UK. Candy said last week that his bid is over 2 billion pounds and he has teamed up with South Korea’s Hana Financial Group and C&P Sports Group. Citadel founder Ken Griffin has also gone into partnership with Chicago Cubs owner, the Ricketts family, to place their bids.

Apollo Global Management Inc. co-founder, Josh Harris, is also now working with Martin Broughton, the former chairman of British Airways Plc and Liverpool FC for an unspecified bid. Another US bidder is Oaktree Capital which is managed by Howard Marks also intends to place a bid. There are also New York Jets owner and the US ambassador in the UK Woody Johnson who are also working on a bid.

Just a few days ago, two more bids were confirmed. One is a British bid and the other is from a partnership led by Larry Tanenbaum of the MLSE. According to reports, the British bid is backed by a London-based global investment firm called Centricus.

BBC reported that the co-founder of this firm, Nizar Al-Bassam, and the CEO are the ones spearheading this bid. Aside from them, the hedge fund managers of Cheyne Capital, Jonathan Lourie, and Talis Capital, Bob Finch will be part of the bid.

There are no details on the Tanenbaum bid just yet but it is already confirmed to a journalist. He also said that the main financial backers will be the CVC Capital Partner which is a global equity firm. CVC has also recently successfully purchased a cricket club last year that will compete in the Indian Premier League for the first time this month.

There are hopes that the new Chelsea FC owner will be named by the end of this week. This is based on a report released by The Guardian. This, of course, will still depend on whether more bidders will arise. Aside from that, the UK government will also be involved in the whole process.

With that, even if The Raine Group announces the successful bid this week, the turnover process may still take a while. Still, this is something that fans and the FC itself should be happy about. After all, the sale of Chelsea is what’s going to keep the team in the professional and international leagues.