Todd Boehly's consortium has been named as Chelsea's preferred bidder, as the complex situation surrounding the club's ownership appears to be coming to an end.
Boehly, who partly owns MLB side the LA Dodgers and has shares in NBA franchise the LA Lakers, appears to have seen off his rivals' bids, which included investment from Formula 1 driver Sir Lewis Hamilton and tennis player Serena Williams.
Should Boehly buy Chelsea, he will invest more than 3.35 billion pounds into the 2021 Champions League winner. On Friday, it emerged Britain's richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, made a bid worth 4.7 billion pounds, despite the deadline being more than two weeks ago.
Ratcliffe is the owner of chemical company Ineos, who are one of the biggest teams in professional cycling and have a stake in the Mercedes F1 team. "We believe that London should have a club that reflects the stature of the city," the statement from Ineos said.
"One that is held in the same regard as Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich. We intend Chelsea to be that club." However, the Ratcliffe bid did not come to fruition and the Boehly consortium is the one that's been selected.
It seemed that Stan Kroenke was going to buy the Dodgers for £900m 10 years ago, only for Boehly’s group to stun the Arsenal owner by bidding £1.3bn for the franchise. It was a huge statement of intent and Boehly, who studied at the London School of Economics and is a part-owner of the Los Angeles Sparks women’s basketball team, has since shown plenty of ambition. There has been steady investment in the Dodgers and they claimed the World Series in 2020, which suggests that Boehly would be focused on winning at Chelsea.
Do not expect Boehly’s group to protect Chelsea’s position by giving them £1.5bn in loans. There is likely to be a desire to make the club self-sufficient and the days of spending £200m on signings in one summer could be over, although that does not necessarily mean that Chelsea will no longer be able to challenge for major honours. They have become one of the biggest brands in the world and could arguably do with a different approach off the pitch.
A ruthless culture of hiring and firing managers has been the norm under Abramovich, but the new hierarchy should be looking to build around Thomas Tuchel and give him more control over recruitment. This could be good for the German. Tuchel has enjoyed working with the influential director, Marina Granovskaia, and the technical and performance adviser, Petr Cech, who should stay, but change in the boardroom could make him even more powerful.
Any deal must be approved by Downing Street, as the UK government have control of Chelsea's future due to sanctions imposed on Roman Abramovich.