Chelsea

Sir Jim Ratcliffe 'still hopeful of winning Chelsea bidding war'

By Oliver Thomas, Senior Reporter | 03 May 2022

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is reportedly still hopeful of buying Chelsea, even though Todd Boehly remains the frontrunner to purchase the club from Roman Abramovich.

Ratcliffe, who is regarded by Forbes as Britain's richest man, is the owner of global chemicals company INEOS, and the 69-year-old submitted a £4.25bn bid to buy the Blues on Friday.

A consortium led by Boehly are also understood to have table a bid, with US merchant bank Raine Group set to make a final decision on who will purchase the club in the coming days.

According to the Evening Standard, Ratcliffe believes he can hijack Boehly's bid after bypassing Raine in making an improved offer.

A statement from INEOS read: "This is a British bid, for a British club. We believe that a club is bigger than its owners who are temporary custodians of a great tradition. With responsibility to the fans and the community.

"That is why we are committing to spending £1.75bn over 10 years that will be for the direct benefit of the club. We will invest in Stamford Bridge to make it a world-class stadium, befitting of Chelsea FC.

"This will be organic and on-going so that we will not move away from the home of Chelsea and risk losing the support of loyal fans.

"We believe that London should have a club that reflects the stature of the city. One that is held in the same regard as Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich. We intend Chelsea to be that club."

A recent report has claimed that the sale of Chelsea could allegedly be at risk, as Abramovich is considering whether to request for a £1.6bn loan to be repaid in full before selling the club.