(Bloomberg) --
A consortium led by former Guggenheim Partners President Todd Boehly is poised to enter exclusive talks to buy Chelsea Football Club, people familiar with the matter said, even as one of Britain's richest men launched a last-gasp bid for the London team.
Boehly, one of the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, beat off competition from rival consortiums including British businessman Martin Broughton and Bain Capital co-chairman Stephen Pagliuca, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Representatives for Broughton and Pagliuca declined to comment. Spokespeople for Boehly, Chelsea and Raine Group, the U.S. advisory firm handling the sale on behalf of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, weren't immediately available for comment.
The sale of Chelsea has been one of the most closely-watched and politically-charged deals in world sports. A late twist emerged on Friday when British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe made a late 4.25 billion-pound ($5.3 billion) bid for the west London club.
Ratcliffe's chemicals group Ineos Group Ltd. said in a statement Friday that the offer comprises a 2.5 billion-pound charitable contribution and a 1.75 billion-pound commitment to invest directly in the club over the next 10 years.
Preferred Bidder
Raine has spent weeks weighing the offers from Boehly, Broughton and Pagliuca ahead of a decision on a preferred bidder. It's not clear whether Ratcliffe's offer has come too late for consideration. Dow Jones reported earlier Friday that Boehly was entering exclusive talks for Chelsea, citing unidentified people.
Ratcliffe is worth almost $11 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He's no stranger to buying football clubs, having previously invested in OGC Nice of France and Switzerland's FC Lausanne-Sport.
The sale of Chelsea is likely to be one of the biggest-ever transactions involving a sports team. Another bid group from the U.S., led by the Ricketts family and including hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, dropped out of the running earlier this month, further narrowing a field that had once numbered more than 20 potential suitors.
Boehly's consortium includes Clearlake Capital, Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss and Jonathan Goldstein, a property entrepreneur who was involved in a bid for London rival Tottenham Hotspur FC in 2014. Boehly bid for Chelsea back in 2019, only for Abramovich to turn him down.
For Chelsea, its employees and fans, a sale will bring much-needed certainty. It's been unable to operate normally since Abramovich had his assets frozen by the U.K. government in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Abramovich put Chelsea on the block in early March, shortly before the U.K. placed him under far-reaching sanctions for his ties to President Vladimir Putin's regime.
Since then, the west London side has been running under a number of restrictions that have prevented it from selling some matchday tickets and merchandise, as well as stopped it from negotiating new player contracts. Chelsea is currently operating under a special U.K. government license that expires on May 31. In an interview with the BBC this week, the U.K.'s culture secretary Nadine Dorries described Chelsea as being on “borrowed time.”
During almost two decades of ownership, Abramovich spent hundreds of millions of pounds turning Chelsea into one of the biggest forces in world football. The club won more than 20 trophies in that time, including last season's UEFA Champions League, and was regularly able to attract the sport's biggest stars.
Charm Offensives
Bidders for Chelsea have spent time in recent weeks in the U.K. capital making their pitches to politicians, fans and even former players to boost their chances of success.
Early on in the process, Boehly added ex-government adviser Danny Finkelstein and celebrity PR executive Barbara Charone to his team. Finkelstein has in the past provided advice to U.K. Conservative prime ministers John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May and was recently part of a government review of football governance in the U.K.
Boehly also received backing from Paul Canoville, Chelsea's first Black player, who tweeted his support earlier this month after meeting the U.S. entrepreneur. Canoville played for Chelsea in the febrile days of the early 1980s when English football crowds would regularly taunt team members of color. He's still involved with the club through his foundation tackling racism, and became an important figure among bidders keen to show their commitments to diversity.
George Osborne, the former U.K. chancellor who now works at London investment banking boutique Robey Warshaw, advised Boehly on his bid.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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