Chelsea verdict on Ricketts bid risks club falling into Manchester United and Arsenal trap

"I can report the vast majority of opinion has been of universal disdain." Those were the pointed words of Brian Wolff, head of Chelsea's Chicago Supporters Club and Chelsea Fans' Forum Overseas Representative.

Wolff's words encapsulated a lot of the concerns shared by fans online since reports emerged of the Ricketts family's interest to buy the club from Roman Abramovich in a statement released from his Twitter account on Monday evening.

The statement went on to list a number of those concerns. Citing their "political donations, fundraising and support for candidates who do not share the inclusive views of Chelsea Football Club and its supporters". Also mentioning the 19 years of work done by the club and Chelsea Foundation, becoming "a leader in committing to a Living Wage, and efforts to protect and promote equality for the BAME and LGBTQ+ communities."

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This comes after leaked emails via Splinter were re-posted from 2017 revealing Islamophobic remarks by Joe Ricketts. The most shared of the quotes across Chelsea fans on social media referred to Islam as a "cult" and revealed the patriarch of the family commenting that "Muslims are naturally my (our) enemy due to their deep antagonism and bias against non-Muslims".

As was quickly noted, Chelsea have four Muslim players in the first-team squad in Antonio Rudiger, N'Golo Kante, Hakim Ziyech and Malang Sarr. Along with Chelsea fans with the same faith and their reaction to a Ricketts takeover.

Tom Ricketts, son of Joe, is the current owner of the Chicago Cubs.