Bidders given extra time to table final offers for Chelsea

The last four bidders for Chelsea have been given extra time to table final offers for the club as the most hotly contested sports auction in history looks set to be extended.

According to Sky News' Mark Kleinman, the remaining consortia were informed on Thursday by the advisers handling the sale they must now submit binding takeover proposals in the back half of next week.

The move, which will prolong the next stage of the auction by a small number of days, has emerged less than 24 hours after Chelsea lost the Champions League quarter-final first leg 3-1 against Real Madrid, leaving last season's winners on the brink of exiting the competition.

A source close to one bidder said they had been told the final bid deadline had been extended until later in the week in order to give them a full and fair opportunity to adequately finalise the details of their proposals.

The source added Raine Group, the US merchant bank handling the sale, had also informed them it is now considering awaiting clearance from the Premier League for all four consortia before presenting a preferred bidder to the government.

Scrutiny of the four bids by English football's top flight has already got underway after the remaining consortia submitted details of their key investors to Raine late last week.

The Premier League is expected to take several weeks to evaluate those involved in the bids - who include a string of US billionaires and pillars of the British corporate establishment - and its work to approve all four of the bidders means the process may need to be extended.

One of the bidders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they now anticipated a final recommendation would be made to ministers later than the original target date of the