Saudi Media Group, Woody Johnson & More Ruled Out of Running for Chelsea Takeover
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By Martin Graham | 28th Mar 2022
A few bidders have been ruled out of contention for the purchase of Chelsea from owner Roman Abramovich, after the bids were scrutinised and narrowed down on Thursday.
Raine Group, the merchant bank based in the United States of America that has been handling the sale have narrowed down all the bids submitted last Friday for the purchase of Chelsea from Abramovich.
The Russian oligarch set his asking price at £3.5 billion, which would make Chelsea the most expensive club in the world if bought at that price.
As many as twenty different bids with varying prices were submitted by the bid submission deadline day, and Raine Group, who had promised to wrap up the sake by the time the current international window is up.
The Saudi Media Group (SMG) – which happens to be one of the fans most preferred options for the takeover of the club – were ruled out with their £2.7 billion offer and plans considered not enough to take Chelsea beyond where Abramovich did in his 19-years as owner.
The SMG’s bid was also ruled out due to the amount of time it would have taken the firm’s ownership checks to be completed by the Premier League if they had been successful with their bid, and that is time Chelsea do not have.
The bid from Woody Johnson, the owner of NFL franchise, New York Jets was also cast aside. Egyptian businessman Muhsin Barak, who was among the first to publicly state his interest, was also ruled out, as was Aethel Partners’ £2 billion bid, although unconfirmed.
Other unconfirmed bids to have been rejected are global investment firm Centricus’ bid and the bid from the consortium led by British billionaire property developer Nick Candy.
The favourites to land the purchase are LA Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly’s consortium, the Chicago Cubs owners the Ricketts family, and the partnership between British businessmen Sir Michael Broughton and Lord Sebastian Coe.
Martin Graham is an MFF sports writer
