Chelsea fans deliver vote of no-confidence in Ricketts’ takeover bid

The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust says its membership “neither supports nor has confidence in” the Ricketts family’s bid to buy the Blues.

The influential CST conducted a snap survey of members, with 77% of those polled claiming not to support the Ricketts’ bid to buy Chelsea. Tom Ricketts, the Chicago Cubs co-chairman, responded directly to the unrest, declaring an “absolute commitment” to diversity and inclusion in the bid.

The Ricketts are among the final four bidders aiming to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich. Tom and his sister Laura Ricketts front the family’s candidacy to take over at the west London club. Chelsea fans also organised a protest against the Ricketts’ candidacy before Saturday’s Premier League match against Brentford at Stamford Bridge. Joe Ricketts, the family patriarch, who has no role at the Cubs or in the bid to buy Chelsea, described Muslims as “my enemy” in leaked emails from 2019.

Chelsea fans have voiced concerns consistently on social media, and now the CST has added further weight to those worries. “At present, it is clear that our membership neither supports nor has confidence in the Ricketts family’s bid for the club,” read a CST statement. “This is reflective of wider concerns articulated by large, vocal sections of Chelsea’s supporter base.

“The CST Board is guided by our membership, and thus we do not currently believe it is in the best interests of our members for the Ricketts family’s bid to succeed. We await further public detail from the Ricketts family on concrete steps they will take to address the well-documented concerns of Chelsea supporters. Should the Ricketts publicly set out clear and detailed plans on how they will address support concerns, we may survey our members again in