Peter Hall

MANCHESTER (Reuters) – Raine Group, the U.S. Bank overseeing Chelsea’s sale, will reduce the list of potential bidders down to three, according to sources. Nick Candy, however, is increasing his offer.

Roman Abramovich initially listed Chelsea for sale after Russia invaded Ukraine. However, this was before British sanctions were placed on Roman Abramovich. The British government effectively took control of Chelsea.

Raine established a Friday deadline at 2100 GMT for all bids. Many were made public by sources, but many others had been filed privately.

Raine has agreed to reduce the shortlist in consultation with the club. The process will be slowed down by the influx in revised bids.

Candy’s Blue Football Consortium, one of three bidders that made their offer public Friday, told Reuters they had revised their bid Monday after being joined “another large Korean bank institution.”

Raine received a proposal from Candy, a British property developer. He raised his offer to Raine by more than two billion pounds (or $2.63 billion). However, he has not disclosed how much nor the identity of any new investors.

He had already been joined in his consortium by South Korean companies Hana Financial Group and C&P Sports Limited before the new investors got on board.

Brian Gordon, partner at Squire Patton Boggs who works with the Blue Football Consortium said that “The Blue Football Consortium can access immediate capital and funds are readily available for deployment starting from day one.”

“The bid comes from credible co-venturers who have a high attitude to governance.”

PREFERRED BUILDERS

The government will submit a list of preferred buyers over the next few days. This special licence must be issued for all sales. It will also require documentation that Abramovich won’t make any financial gains.

After that, it is up to the buyer to clear the Premier League’s Director’s and Owners’ tests before completing a buyout.

This test lists the factors that could prevent an individual becoming a director or owner of a club.

This includes criminal convictions, bans by sporting and professional bodies, as well as breaches of key football regulations such match-fixing.

Candy’s bid was not the only one that was made public. The Ricketts family of Chicago Cubs and Sebastian Coe, former president of World Athletics, as well as Martin Broughton, were also among the other two consortiums to make their offers.

Some of the bids have not yet been made public. Centricus, a London-based global investor firm, confirmed Monday that it had offered Chelsea to purchase them. This move was driven by Garth Ritchie and Nizar Al-Bassam, both co-founders.

British media reported that several other bidders were named, including Saudi Media headed by Mohamed Alkhereiji.

Candy’s bid was not guaranteed to be on the shortlist. However, they stated Monday that initial talks had been held with PrimaryBid tech platform, in an effort to possibly consider a model of community enfranchisement for Chelsea. This would focus on fan engagement and involvement.

($1 = 0.7593 pounds)