Chelsea have announced that they will be heading the United States of America this summer as part of their pre-season schedule.
The Blues have announced that they will be playing three matches during a week-long period in America between July 16 and July 23 as part of the FC Series, a global pre-season tournament involving Chelsea, Arsenal and other clubs.
Thomas Tuchel’s side will play three friendlies across the pond in the ‘Clash of Nations’ tour, although the opponents and locations of the Blues’ first two games on Saturday, July 16 and Wednesday, July 20 are still to be confirmed.
They will conclude the tour on Saturday, July 23 against Arsenal, with the two sides playing for the Florida Cup at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
Former Chelsea and Arsenal goalkeeper and the Blues’s current technical and performance advisor Petr Cech said: “We’ve always had a lot of success on our US tours, taking so many fans to the stadiums and giving them the opportunity to see Chelsea FC play live.
“We have a huge fan base in the US that we’ve proudly built, and we’ve seen that fanbase getting bigger and bigger every year. We are delighted to go and play in the FC Series and the Florida Cup, where in total we will have three competitive games to prepare well for our upcoming season and to show what we can do to the American audience.”
However, Chelsea’s pre-season tour of the States, their latest of a long trip to the country in their previous pre-season tours, will only go ahead if their planned sale of the club goes through as planned.
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In March, owner Roman Abramovich placed the club up for sale for a believed asking fee of £3bn after being sanctioned by the British government following Russia ’s invasion of Ukraine and alleged links with Vladimir Putin.
Last Thursday marked the deadline for improved bids to buy the club with there being three groups believed to be in the running. They are led by Todd Boehly, Sir Martin Broughton and Stephen Pagliuca.
Given the restrictions the club were handed as a result of sanctions against Abramovich, they are hoping to sell the club to the right bidder as soon as possible, with Chelsea confirming that the plan is to go ahead with the pre-season tour of America on the basis that the sale has gone through and all restrictions have been lifted.
Before they meet in pre-season in July, Chelsea play host to Arsenal in the Premier League on Wednesday night.
The Gunners would go level on points with fourth-placed north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur with a win over Tuchel’s side. However, they head into the match off the back of three straight defeats to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Hove Albion and Southampton.
Chelsea meanwhile have won each of their last three games in all competitions against Saints, Real Madrid and Palace, the latter of which saw them book a place in May’s FA Cup final.
