Chelsea sale heading for full time as deadline arrives for potential world record £2.5bn deal
This is a big week for Chelsea Football Club on the field, with the Blues’ men’s and women’s teams both preparing for FA Cup semi-finals on Sunday.
For the men, the game is a must-win if they are to lift a trophy this season, as well as a chance to bounce back from a painful midweek Champions League elimination. For the women, the fixture has the added spice of being a showdown with their main rivals for the league title, Arsenal.
But off the pitch it is an even bigger few days for the West London outfit, which has been enveloped by uncertainty since last month when the UK sanctioned its owner, Roman Abramovich, for his links to the Kremlin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A hurried sale of Chelsea, potentially for a world record price for a sports team of around £2.5bn, reaches an important milestone and, barring any further delays, is likely to enter its final stages.
The four remaining bidders have been told to submit their final offers by the end of Thursday by the Raine Group, the US merchant bank tasked with selling Chelsea by Abramovich.
They include three consortia spearheaded by owners of American sports franchises and another fronted by former British Airways chairman Sir Martin Broughton but, intriguingly, also widely believed to be backed by other US sports team owners.
A sale could progress relatively swiftly after the Easter weekend. It is anticipated that a preferred bidder, expected to be chosen by Abramovich and the Raine Group, will be put to the Premier League and, subsequently, the government for approval next week.
A working assumption has been that a deal will be completed by the end of the football season in late May, and there is thought to be appetite on all sides to get it done.
For Chelsea and the club’s employees and supporters, there is particular urgency. Since Abramovich was sanctioned they have been operating under the narrow terms of a special licence granted by the government, which has allowed them to continue operating the club’s men’s and women’s football teams but without engaging in any new business and accruing any additional income for their owner.
Business at Stamford Bridge has, then, effectively been on hold. Not only has the club not been allowed to sell further tickets for home games, it also remains unable to offer new contracts or sign new commercial partners.
Chelsea faces losing several key men’s players in the summer as a result and cannot yet line up replacements. Efforts to find a replacement for main sponsor, mobile operator Three, are also on hold.
Since sanctioning Abramovich and issuing Chelsea’s licence, the government has sought to remain hands-off, save for easing restrictions slightly to allow the club’s parent company to inject funds to cover salaries.
While it must ultimately approve any takeover, it has appeared reluctant to draw up a preferred framework for a sale and has instead mandated Chelsea to design the deal and present it to the government for rubber-stamping – if deemed acceptable.
One of the more curious details of the sale is that Broughton’s bid is said to be backed by Josh Harris and David Blitzer. The Americans are co-owners in several US sports teams, most notably NBA side the Philadelphia 76ers.
They also own a significant stake – which they would have to divest if they buy into Chelsea – in another Premier League team, Crystal Palace, who happen to be the Blues’ opponents in the men’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Sunday.