The sale of Chelsea is moving a step closer with three final bids being evaluated by the club’s board and Raine Group, the US merchant bank overseeing the auction on Roman Abramovich’s behalf, before an application is made to the government for the terms of its operating licence to be altered.
All three consortiums have experience in US Sports and, as part of final bids submitted before last Thursday night's deadline, have vowed not to load the club with debt. The least complicated group is led by LA Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly, with key figures in the other two needing to divest or reduce shareholding in other clubs for a move to proceed.
Steve Pagliuca will need to reduce his 47% share in Serie A club Atalanta to satisfy conflict of interest issues, while the backers of the other bid, Josh Harris and David Blitzer, would need to sell their stakes in Crystal Palace to pass the Premier League's owners' and directors' test.
But beyond that there remain unanswered questions around where the money from a deal that could end up being worth a record £3billion goes and clarity is unlikely to arrive until after the transaction is completed.
There are two likely scenarios around what happens to any profit generated: a surplus will either go to charities dedicated to victims of the war in Ukraine or be placed in an escrow account, where it will be frozen and held for an undetermined length of time - perhaps until Abramovich is no longer on the UK government sanctions list.
When the club was initially put up for sale at the beginning of March, the 55-year-old oligarch said that profits would go to a "charitable foundation" set up by his team that "will be for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine." The club did not deny that a portion of that would go to Russian victims at the time.
The government's primary concern in relation to the transfer of ownership is that Abramovich does not make a penny from it and they are not expected to make any further demands once guarantees have been received. Last week a Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) spokesman confirmed earlier reports that they will not be naming a preferred bidder.
“The government has no role in establishing a preferred bidder for Chelsea Football Club," the spokesman said. "Assessments of owners and due diligence are a matter for the club and the Premier League, not the government. Our role is to consider an application for an amended licence that authorises a sale of the club when it comes forward with a preferred bidder.”
That application to amend will be submitted once the club and Raine decide upon their preferred bidder from the three remaining groups. From there the prospective buyer will need to satisfy the Premier League's owners and directors' test, a process that could take about 10 days to complete according to past comments from the league’s chief executive, Richard Masters.
