The prospective buyers of Chelsea have reportedly been given two weeks to submit their final bids ahead of an eventual takeover.
The club have been put up for sale following the government sanctions placed upon Roman Abramovich, given the Russian’s reported allegiances to President Vladimir Putin following his barbaric invasion of Ukraine last month.
Chelsea are currently operating under a special license that has severely hindered their ability to do business, with the club no longer allowed to sell tickets to home fans, while proceeds from sales of away tickets are set to be donated to the Premier League, who will pass it on to charities to help the crisis in Ukraine.
The club have not been short of interest, with a whole host of potential buyers submitting initial bids ahead of this Friday’s deadline.
Those bidders were whittled down to a shortlist of four, with Sky Sports now reporting that they have been given a deadline of April 11th to submit a final bid.
The report says that the bidders ‘will have the opportunity to improve their offers from the indicative proposals’, with merchant bankers The Raine Group overseeing the sale of the club.
The shortlisted four have already been told that they must make commit ‘at least £1 billion to future investment in the club’, with the additional funding needing to be ‘made available for the Blues’ Stamford Bridge stadium, playing squad and other areas of development’.
All four remaining parties have experience in running sports teams, with former Liverpool chairman Sir Martin Broughton backed by the wealthy American duo of Josh Harris and Dave Blitzer, who own the Philadelphia 76’s.
LA Dodgers part-owner, Todd Boehly, Chicago Cubs owners, the Ricketts family, and Stephen Pagliuca – owner of Serie A side Atalanta and basketball side Boston Celtics – are the other parties in the race to take over in West Lonfon.
The report goes on to say that a formal deal could be concluded ‘by the end of next month’.
