Chelsea fan favourite in the Blues takeover race Todd Boehly could have his bid affected with the revelation that he is still a shareholder in a betting firm that is operating in Roman Abramovich's home nation.
Abramovich is in the process of selling the club he has been in charge of for the past 19 years. After being sanctioned by the UK government for alleged links to Vladimir Putin, no money from the sale will go to the Russian but he retains the final say on who succeeds him in west London. Last Friday saw the deadline for initial bids pass, with preferred offers selected for the final stage. Boehly's consortium was one of those bids selected with the new deadline for improved offers set for April 11 with the aim to present a preferred bidder to the government by April 18.
Ahead of this deadline, each party has been planning on how they will woe over the overwhelming support of the critical Chelsea faithful, and the quiet nature surrounding the Boehly and Wyss bid had been seen as good news with all the heat on stopping the Ricketts bid prevailing. Tom Ricketts and co are set to meet more of the supporters after they gained reported approval from the likes of Bruce Buck and Paul Canoville respectively but this wasn't enough to stop the backlash with the #NoToRicketts campaign evolving to a petition gathering 19,000+ signatures ahead of a planned protest pre-Brentford.
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Whilst their bid would be focussed on re-developing the stadium, Boehly's group wanted to become more of a Liverpool model with the smart signings approach that has been optimised by the Fenway Sports Group. All sounding good but one thing that has now dented their bid is a supposed involvement in Russia that may not go down well with the Raine Group, who were hired by Abramovich to choose the next stewards of the club.
According to the Daily Mail, the part LA Dodgers owner is reportedly still a shareholder in a betting firm that is still operating in Russia. The report adds that his stake in Sportsradar is not significant at all so may well not impact his bid in the short-term but the uncertainty that could come around with this development may not only come as a boost to Ricketts but also to the other two groups that are vying to complete what is touted to be the most expensive purchase of a sporting team in history.
