American baseball club owners join fundraiser in auction for Chelsea via Reuters

By Peter Hall

LONDON (Reuters) – Owners of the Chicago Cubs baseball team have joined Citadel founder Ken Griffin in a bid to acquire English football club Chelsea, a Griffin spokesman said on Wednesday.

The puppy owners, the Ricketts family and Griffin have formed an investment group that is expected to make a formal offer to the London club on Friday. This offer does not include hedge fund trading citadel, only Griffin.

Ricketts said the family will lead the group in the auction.

“Operators with experience in an iconic professional sports team, Rickets family and its associates respect the traditions of the club, fans and the community and understand the importance of investing for success on the field,” the Rickets Family Investment Group said in a statement. .

Another bidder, Nick Candy, will join the familiar face of Chelsea fans, former player and manager Gianluca Willi, who has announced he will be working on a project with a British developer.

“I am proud and very pleased to support Mr Candy’s bid to buy Chelsea,” Vialli said in a statement following the announcement that his co-founder, Tifosy, would act as a leading consultant on the process.

Chelsea was put up for sale by Roman Abramovich following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, before the British government imposed sanctions on the Russian oligarchy.

European champions now operate under a special license and are effectively controlled by the British government.

Abramovich bought the club in 2003 for £ 140 million ($ 183.2 million). He financed Chelsea a total of 1.5 1.5 billion in debt through Fordstam Limited.

His investment has led to five successful Premier League titles, five FA Cups and two Champions League eras in club history.

Chelsea are ranked by Forbes as the seventh most valuable club in world football worth $ 3.2 billion.

(Peter Hall, Rohit Nair and William James)