The Chelsea Supporters Club (CST) have issued a statement of concern about the prospect of the Ricketts family consortium taking over the Champions League holders.
US brokers Raine, who are facilitating the sale of the west Londoners, are believed to have whittled down the potential bids to take over the Blues. However, the Ricketts’ family’s interest, which was publicly declared on the 16th March, has been met with firm resistance from Chelsea supporters and players.
Joe Ricketts was forced to apologise for some Islamophobic comments he made in 2019, while his son Todd - who stated he had distanced himself from his father – has also come under intense scrutiny for comments he made about Coronavirus and American ‘concentration camps’. Amid these unearthed comments and a meeting between the CST and the Ricketts family, the supporters' club remains unconvinced and further clarified their opposition towards the Chicago Cubs baseball team owners.
"It is essential that the new owners of the club has the confidence of the supporter base and demonstrate an understanding of the values that we stand for,” the CST said in a statement. “That is why the strength of feeling towards the Ricketts family bud from Chelsea supporters cannot and must not be ignored.
“The CST are grateful to the Ricketts family for meeting with us this week. We challenged them on all the points supporters have raised concerns about.
“However, our concerns about their ability to run an inclusive, successful club on behalf of our diverse supporter base around the world have not yet been allayed.” The backlash has resulted in the Todd Boehly consortium and the joint bid by Josh Harris and David Blitzer becoming the firm favourites to take over the club from Roman Abramovich, who was subjected to UK sanctions on the 10 th March, amid Russia ’s continued invasion of Ukraine.
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As well as meeting the key members of the CST, the Ricketts family also communicated their clear rejection to “any forms of hate in the strongest possible terms. "Our family rejects any form of hate in the strongest possible terms. Racism and Islamophobia have no place whatsoever in our society,” a statement released by Joe Ricketts.
However, this message has not had the desired effects as the CST still have huge doubts about the Ricketts’ family’s ability to ensure the club maintains a sense of inclusivity. “It is for the Ricketts family to demonstrate how they will address supporter concerns – especially with regard to inclusivity, given both past and recent statements by members of the family, and they have not yet done that,” the statement added.
“They must do so publicly and they must do so urgently. If they are unable to do this and gain the confidence of Chelsea supporters, the CST Board does not believe it would be in the best interests of our members and Chelsea supporters for their bid to succeed.”
The Athletic claims British property developer Nick Candy and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson are already out of the running, while the bid led by the Saudi Media Group has also fallen by the Wear-side. The successful bidder of the club is expected to pay around £2.27billion for the European and World Champions.
