Wednesday 30th March 2022, not a date you would associate with any significance in the race to buy Chelsea, however as fans have known for years, drama is never too far away, let’s take a look at everything that’s happened today :
Todd Boehly’s consortium makes stadium move by reaching out to former project director of Roman Abramovich.
According to James Robson from The Evening Standard, Todd Boehly’s consortium have reached out to the former project director of Roman Abramovich’s abandoned stadium plan. Not only that, Janet Smith has been consulted, she has worked on Fenway Park, Atlanta’s Olympic stadium and made more than £200m of improvements to the La Dodger Stadium, which Todd Boehly owns 20% of.
Rival bidders are angry at what they see as “ preferential “ treatment towards The Ricketts, according to a Times Exclusive.
It emerged yesterday that Tom Ricketts had met former Chelsea player Paul Canoville at Stamford Bridge on a wide range of issues including racism and diversity after Paul Canoville was previously outraged at some of the comments from The Ricketts Family. We are saddened to report that Paul suffered inexcusable racist abuse from Chelsea “ Supporters “ who reacted to the news that he had met Tom Ricketts.
One of the shortlisted consortiums fears that the rules of the process have been “ Breached “, In a letter sent to bidding groups on March 1, it was stressed that no contact should be made with the Chelsea executive during the sale process.
However, when the Ricketts family realised there was opposition to their bid among Chelsea fans because of Islamophobic remarks made by Joe Ricketts in 2019, Tom Ricketts, Joe’s son, contacted Bruce Buck to broker a meeting with Canoville, the club’s first black player.
“ Why has Bruce helped Ricketts to organise this meeting?” the bid insider said. “It’s a joke. He’s actually helping them to cleanse their reputation when we have all been told we can’t speak to the Chelsea executive until we have the opportunity to meet them next week
Matt Lawton – The Times
We are awaiting further developments on the sale, however it now seems that the rival bidders are angry. Could there be a conflict of interest? remember, Matt Law from The Telegraph reported a few weeks ago that Raine have an existing working relationship with Raine which could lead to these claims.
Bruce Buck Drama :
Bruce Buck, just as he was in 2021, is involved in another battle with the fans, fans were furious when a report emerged from The Athletic’s Liam Twomey stating that some around the process have felt for a while that Bruce Buck has been advocating for the Ricketts and Griffin bid.
Fans didn’t agree that this was a well intentioned thought process from the Chelsea Chairman.
Bruce Buck is confident however that he did not break any rules :
“ Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck is confident he has not breached any rules or undermined theintegrity of the club’s sale by facilitating a meeting between Tom Ricketts and the club’s former player Paul Canoville.
It has emerged that rival shortlisted bidders to the Ricketts family were disturbed to find out that Buck had been at a meeting involving Ricketts and Canoville at Stamford Bridge last Thursday.
And while Buck is insistent he did nothing to favour the Ricketts, Chelsea’s other shortlisted bidders may yet demand answers from Raine, the bank in charge of the sale, over why they helped to set up the meeting
Buck is also insistent he would have set up a meeting for any other group on the request of Raine and was not favouring the Ricketts by facilitating the Canoville meeting “
Matt Law – The Telegraph
Meanwhile, one of the bidders who missed out on the final shortlist feels like The Ricketts could have been decided as winners from the start.
One of the bidders to purchase Chelsea who did not make it on to the final shortlist told Telegraph Sport:
“ Maybe it was decided from the start that the Ricketts family should win. Is the whole bidding process a show? “
Matt Law – The Telegraph
This story could develop further in the next few days so we will be sure to keep you up to date here at ChelseaFC365.
John Terry’s consortium – The Latest
Many of you will know but for those who don’t, John Terry formed a consortium which he named “ The True Blues “ consortium, they want a 10% stake in new ownership with the focus being on making sure the fans have a say and to protect the club, Sky news reports tonight that his consortium is in “ Positive Talks “ with 2 of the shortlisted bidders.
It would be wrong to assume who he has chosen, but one suspects that John would not form with The Ricketts, given the backlash against them from the very own fans he adores.
Chelsea Twitter Account CFCDubois starts a petition against The Ricketts ownership :
@CFCDubois is a Twitter account with 198,000 followers, today, he started a petition for fans to sign if they agreed The Ricketts Family should NOT be allowed to own Chelsea, as the time of publishment, the petition stands at 10,200 signatures in just over 3 hours of posting time.
The Link can be found here if you want to sign, however it is not personal advice that you do, you must make your own personal decision : https://t.co/eyCCvG2X9k
