Chicago Cubs owners, the Ricketts family, will not submit final bid to buy Chelsea

By Homero de la Fuente, CNN

Updated 1537 GMT (2337 HKT) April 15, 2022

Chelsea's stadium Stamford Bridge is seen through trees in London.

(CNN)The Ricketts Family, one of the bidders for Chelsea FC, announced on Friday that they will not submit a final bid to purchase the English Premier League club.

«The Ricketts-Griffin-Gilbert Group has decided, after careful consideration, not to submit a final bid for Chelsea F.C. In the process of finalizing their proposal, it became increasingly clear that certain issues could not be addressed given the unusual dynamics around the sales process,» the owners of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs said in a statement to CNN.«We have great admiration for Chelsea and its fans, and we wish the new owners well.»The Ricketts family had partnered with US billionaires Dan Gilbert, the owner of Basketball's Cleveland Cavaliers, and Dan Griffin, a hedge fund founder, in their pursuit of the team.After announcing their bid to purchase the club, the Ricketts family came under fire due to leaked emails revealed in 2019 that Joe Ricketts — the family patriarch, who was not involved in the potential purchase of Chelsea — had made anti-Muslim comments, in a series of emails during the 2012 US election cycle. Among other things, Joe Ricketts called Muslims «our enemy.» Read MoreHe later apologized and admitted he has said things that don't reflect his value system.Chelsea suffers Champions League defeat against Real Madrid as club's future remains uncertainShortly after, the Chelsea Supporters' Trust released a statement saying that 77% of its members did not support the Ricketts-led consortium's bid for the club.A representative of the Ricketts group told CNN the decision to withdraw was not due to