Chelsea already glimpses its new Abramovich

Todd Boehly, Sir Martin Broughton and Josh Harris, the Ricketts family and Stephen Pagliuca are the definitive contenders to take over Chelsea FC, but only one will make it. This has been determined by Raine Group, the New York investment bank that manages the sale of the English team by indication of Roman Abramovich, who was the one who commissioned it before being sanctioned by Downing Street.

The sale of Chelsea will be the most expensive in the history of a sports franchise – it is expected to exceed 3,000 million euros -, although what is still unknown is who will receive this income, because Abramovich has his assets frozen in the United Kingdom. In principle, the money will be raised by the British government and will most likely be donated to the victims of the conflict in Ukraine.

But first the buyer will have to be decided, who will be subjected to a scrupulous examination by the selection committee, which is made up of the directors of the Raine Group and the current directors of Chelsea: Bruce Buck, Eugene Tenenbaum and Marina Granovskaia. Under the supervision of the government, they are the ones who have decided the four finalist groups, among which Todd Boehly stands out…

Todd Boehly (LA Dodgers)

The American businessman Todd Boehly is an “old acquaintance” for the blues hobby. His fortune is valued at 6,000 million euros, he participated in the acquisition of the LA Dodgers and already tried to buy the club from Abramovich in 2018 for more than 2,500 million euros, but his offer was rejected.

Now he is launching again for Chelsea at the hands of the Swiss Hanjborg Wyss -with more than 4,000 million euros of capital-, Jonathan Goldstein, and Clearlake Capital, a Californian investment fund with assets worth 70,000 million euros. Their proposal is the strongest economically and they have been working on it for a long time. In fact, Boehly would have met with senior members of Chelsea to discuss the main lines of the new project, such as the mega reform of Stamford Bridge.

Sir Martin Broughton (expresidente del Liverpool)

Despite having been the top manager of Liverpool, Sir Martin Broughton is a Chelsea fan and the public face of the bid that most fiercely competes with Boehly’s Swiss-American consortium. Nevertheless, Broughton is financed by Josh Harris, the majority shareholder of Crystal Palace, with 6,000 million euros of capital; as well as by David Blitzer, who is also a shareholder of the Palace, of the Philadelphia 76ersand whose estimated wealth exceeds 1,000 million euros.

Before executing the purchase, this investment group would be forced to dispose of its stake in the Palace to avoid an obvious conflict of interest. A condition that seems to have been assumed from the beginning by this British consortium that He also has the support of Vivek Ranadive – the owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, who has more than 600 million euros – and Lord Sebastian Coe, the athletics legend, who is currently a Tory (Conservative) MP.

Los Ricketts (Chicago Cubs)

The Ricketts family would be another of the candidates to take into account in this process if it were not for their controversial ideological leanings that have pitted them against the Chelsea fans. Blue fans have launched a huge social media campaign against the Ricketts, whom they accuse of being racist.

The “No to the Ricketts” has been a trending topic during the last hours in Great Britain, but it does not seem to intimidate the owners of the Chicago Cubs, with more than 4,000 million combined capitaland that they have the financial support of the owner of the Citadel hedge fund, Ken Griffin, who has an estimated fortune of around 25,000 million euros.

Stephen Pagliuca (Atalanta and Boston Celtics)

Stephen Pagliuca is the surprise candidate. It did not come out in any forecast but it has ended up sneaking into the “shortlist” of the Raine Group, and for that reason it must be taken into account. For this reason, and because of the financial power of its investment fund, Bain Capital, with 120,000 million euros in assets, although his estimated personal fortune does not exceed 500 million euros.

Pagliuca has, however, investors behind him who support the purchase of Chelsea, as they did when he bought Atalanta from Serie A and the Boston Celtics from the NBA. If he finally becomes the owner of the Stamford Bridge team, he will have to dispose of his shares in Atalanta, with which he would have a new conflict of interest.

Investors “remora”

They have not passed the cut, but there are several investment groups that submitted an offer for Chelsea and now want to adhere to one of the previous proposals. This is the example of Nick Candy, the famous British businessman who is a fan of Chelsea and who, not being included in the final list of the Raine Group, was forced to break ties with his South Korean partners of the Hana Financial Group.led by Camila Kim, who also hopes to join the Chelsea board of directors.