Chelsea sale: Two preferred bids now 'frontrunners' with Ricketts family knocked back

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The race for ownership of Chelsea has taken another turn, with two bids racing to the forefront of the reckoning.

A number have suitors have stepped forward since Roman Abramovich announced his plans to sell up, valuing the Premier League club in the billions. Despite the Russian being added to the UK government's list of sanctioned individuals, plenty of bidders have remained undeterred.

Now, though, the group has begun to thin. Unsuccessful bidders are being informed one by one that they're out of the running, and bids involving Woody Johnson and the Ricketts family are among those reportedly missing out.

Raine Group, the bank trusted with overseeing the sale, had set a deadline of last Friday for bids to come in. It has now begun the process of letting unsuccessful suitors know, one by one, that they have missed out.

After earlier reports suggested Saudi Media Group had fallen by the wayside, Sky News reports Woody Johnson is now also out of the running. The New York Jets owner, a former US ambassador to the United Kingdom, had been reported as an early front-runner.