British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has held talks with the influential Chelsea Supporters’ Trust as he waits for word on his last-ditch £4.25 billion ($5.3bn) bid to buy the Premier League club.
The Ineos chief tabled his late bid on Friday in what now represents the biggest offer to buy out the London club from Russian owner Roman Abramovich.
Ratcliffe made his surprise bid two weeks after the deadline set by US advisory firm Raine Group, who are handling the sale on behalf of Abramovich who has been sanctioned by the UK government for his ties to President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
“While the CST has had initial talks with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his team, no further meeting is yet in the diary,” Dominic Rosso, CST’s vice chairman told Bloomberg on Tuesday.
Ratcliffe is mounting a last-minute challenge to former Guggenheim Partners president Todd Boehly for control of Chelsea. Boehly, one of the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, last week emerged as the frontrunner for the football club.
Boehly – and other hopefuls British businessman Martin Broughton and Bain Capital co-chairman Steve Pagliuca – were all hoping to hear this week about which of their consortium offers to buy the Blues had been selected as the preferred bid.
During that time, the bidders spent time meeting supporter groups, politicians and even former players to boost their chances of success.
Abramovich put the club up for sale in early March, shortly before the UK government placed him under far-reaching sanctions.
Since then, Chelsea have been running under a number of restrictions that have prevented them from selling some matchday tickets and merchandise, as well as stopped the club from negotiating new player contracts. Chelsea are operating under a special UK government license that expires on May 31.
The uncertainty has played a part in Germany defender Antonio Rudiger's impending free transfer move to Spanish side Real Madrid.
Blues manager Thomas Tuchel said last month: "The situation is that he wants to leave the club. He informed me of this in a private talk.
"We gave everything – me and the club – but we could not fight anymore because of the actions. Without the sanctions we would at least be able to carry on fighting, but our hands are tied.
"He is a key figure and will stay that way until the end of the season. But it is disappointing. We will miss him a lot."
