Jim Ratcliffe, a billionaire industrialist and one of Britain’s richest men, made a $ 5.3 billion bid to buy Chelsea from the Premier League, a late and bold move that surpassed at least three other multibillion-dollar bids for the team.
The price, if accepted, will be the highest ever paid for a sports franchise, and includes a commitment to spend more than $ 2 billion to ensure the team retains its place among the world’s football elite.
“We are making this investment as fans of the beautiful game, not as a means to make a profit,” Ratcliffe said in a statement issued by his petrochemical business, Ineos, reaffirming his persecution of Chelsea. “We do this with our core business. The club is rooted in its community and its fans. And for this reason, our intention is to invest in Chelsea.
Ratcliffe’s huge bid for the West London club – which arrived on Friday as Chelsea and the bank it had hired to manage the sale – weighed at least three billion-dollar bids – limits the turbulent and dizzying few weeks for Chelsea. Chelsea’s current owner, Roman Abramovich, was forced to put the team up for sale when he was subjected to crippling sanctions by the British government and others over his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Under Abramovich, Chelsea became one of the biggest and most successful teams in world football. However, this came at a huge cost, as the team lost about $ 1 million a week since Abramovich, then an unknown Russian businessman, took control of the team in 2003.
Ratcliffe, whose personal fortune could surpass Abramovich’s, suggests he would be willing to do the same. His offer is likely to be out of the reach of the three candidates already being considered by the Raine Group, New York-based commercial bank Chelsea has lured it to deal with the sale. Ratcliffe’s arrival changed that process, but his choice could make the sale faster than it would have been.
Any sale will require the approval of both the British government and the Premier League. The British government will have to issue a license similar to the one that allowed Chelsea to continue to operate after Abramovich was put on the sanctions list, and the Premier League must approve all new owners.
As part of his proposal, Ratcliffe pledged £ 2.5 billion, or $ 3.1 billion, to a charity trust to support the victims of the war. This language is similar to the one used by Abramovich when he first announced that he was putting the club up for sale. It remains unclear how such a charity will work or how the British government will ensure that none of the proceeds go to Abramovich.
Ratcliffe has also promised to invest another $ 2.1 billion in Chelsea over the next 10 years, a figure that will include the reconstruction of Stamford Bridge’s aging stadium, another of Abramovich’s arrangements.
Ratcliffe, who has been described as a fan of Chelsea’s Manchester United Premier League rivals since his school days, is worth $ 10.6 billion, according to a Bloomberg index of the world’s richest people. Chelsea will not be Ratcliffe’s first foray into sports investment or even football. He owns the French professional football club OGC Nice, located near his home in Monaco, as well as FC Lausanne-Sport, a team in Switzerland. But buying Chelsea would be on a completely different scale. He promised to keep the team’s place among the elite teams in the world.
“We believe that London should have a club that reflects the status of the city,” Ratcliffe said. “One who behaves in the same way as Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich. We intend Chelsea to be this club. “
His bold, 11-hour offer will anger a group of American-backed bidders who have spent the past few weeks in an increasingly complex auction devised by Rhine co-founder Joe Ravich, the banker in charge of the sale. Deadlines for final bids have been extended several times, and then later this week the three investment groups that remain in the process were told to increase their bids by another $ 600 million.
Circumstances of the sale are among the strangest observed in professional sports, creating a beauty contest that brought together some of the richest people in the world, but also famous athletes and unknown figures who seem to intend to use the sale to raise their own your profiles. Raine did not comment during the bidding process, except in an interview in which Ravich made the startling – and still unfounded – claim to the Financial Times that Chelsea and other Premier League teams could be worth $ 10 billion in five years.
Around the same time that Ratcliffe went public with his offer, The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported that one of the finalists in the bidding, a group led by Los Angeles Dodgers private owner Todd Bowley, should participate in exclusively negotiating the acquisition of Chelsea.
Boehly’s group was challenged by a sprawling consortium funded by Josh Harris and David Blitzer, members of the property group that controls the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, which this week added Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton and tennis star Serena Williams.
The third finalist was a group led by Steve Palyuka, co-owner of the NBA’s Boston Celtics. Palyuka’s consortium includes Larry Tenenbaum, chairman of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, hockey team Toronto Maple Leafs and Major League Football, Toronto FC Palyuka, and the Palyuka group on Friday. considered.
For players, staff and Chelsea fans, the sale may not come soon enough. The club is operating under extremely unusual financial constraints following sanctions against Abramovich, described by the British government as a close aide to Putin. A special government license that allowed the team to operate left the club with up to 10,000 unsold tickets for its home games and forced the team to limit its travel budgets and close the team’s store.
Uncertainty about the future also affected the team on the field. Chelsea expect to lose two key defenders, Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen, when their contracts expire at the end of the season, and any talks on their replacement cannot take place until Abramovich’s replacement is found.
Among the bidders, Ratcliffe seems to be the closest to Abramovich for Chelsea fans, who are used to financing their team from a single wealthy investor. The strategy was costly – Abramovich took in about $ 2 billion in losses during his tenure as owner – but successful: Chelsea enjoyed the greatest period of success in its history, becoming a serial contender for both domestic and international honors , as well as for the best talent in the world and won five Premier Leagues and two European Championships.
“We will continue to invest in the team to ensure that we have a first-class team of the world’s greatest players, coaches and support staff in men’s and women’s matches,” said Ratcliffe.
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