Chelsea remains for sale and unsold. The team was placed up for sale in March after Russian owner, Roman Abramovich, was sanctioned by the British government due to his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe joined the bidding for Chelsea. The English club has now received four offers. Three from U.S. investors and Ratcliffe’s bid. The 69-year-old, owner of petrochemical INEOS, and Britain’s richest man made an offer of up to £4.25bn to buy Chelsea.
Ratcliffe held talks with Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck on Thursday and submitted the offer for the Stamford Bridge club on Friday. The offer was submitted to Raine Group, the New York-based merchant bank overseeing the auction.
“We put an offer in this morning. We are the only British bid. Our motives are simply to try and create a very fine club in London. We have no profit motive because we make our money in other ways”, Ratcliffe told The Times.
What the offer consists of?
An INEOS statement confirming the offer said that £2.5bn will be committed to a charitable trust to support victims of the war in Ukraine with the remaining £1.75bn committed to investing in the club for the next 10 years.
The company statement read as follows: “We will invest in Stamford Bridge to make it a world-class stadium, befitting of Chelsea FC. This will be organic and ongoing so that we will not move away from the home of Chelsea and risk losing the support of loyal fans. We will continue to invest in the team to ensure we have a first-class squad of the world’s greatest players, coaches, and support staff, in the men’s and women’s games. And we hope to continue to invest in the academy to provide the opportunity for talented youngsters to develop into first-class players. 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”.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe already possesses a sports portfolio
INEOS and Ratcliffe already possess an impressive sports portfolio, including a successful cycling team and a close partnership with the Mercedes Formula 1 team. Also, in the summer of 2019, the company bought Ligue 1 club Nice for about €100m. Furthermore, Sir Jim Ratcliffe purchased Swiss top-flight football team FC Lausanne-Sport in 2017.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s fortune
According to Forbes Ratcliffe, who is a Manchester United supporter, is worth £12.1bn and is the 124th richest man in the world. INEOS has an annual turnover of about £45bn and employs more than 18,500 people at 181 sites across 22 countries.
