Ineos chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe submits £4.25bn bid for Chelsea

Billionaire businessman Sir Jim Ratcliffe has tabled a last-minute £4.25 billion bid to buy Chelsea Football Club from sanctioned Russian Roman Abramovich.

The Ineos boss is understood to have held talks with Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck and submitted what now represents the biggest offer for the Premier League club on Friday.

Ineos said they would aim to buy the world's best players, coaches and staff.

Other hopefuls Todd Boehly, Sir Martin Broughton and Steve Pagliuca were all hoping to hear this week which of their consortium offers to buy the Blues had been selected as the preferred bid.

The 69-year-old, one of Britain's richest people, explored a previous bid for the Blues in 2019, only to buy French club Nice instead, but his due diligence on Chelsea there could expedite the process this time around.

An Ineos statement read: “Sir Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of Ineos, has made a formal bid for Chelsea FC, for £4.25bn; £2.5bn is committed to the Charitable Trust to support victims of the war, with £1.75bn committed to investment directly into the club over the next 10 years.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has tabled a bid to buy Chelsea. PA

“This is a British bid, for a British club. We believe that a club is bigger than its owners who are temporary custodians of a great tradition. With responsibility to the fans and the community.

“That is why we are committing to spending £1.75bn over 10 years that will be for the direct benefit of the club.

The statement added that Ineos will invest in Stamford Bridge to make it a “world-class stadium, befitting of Chelsea FC".

“We will continue to invest in the team to ensure we have a first-class squad of the world's greatest players, coaches and support staff, in the men's and women's games,”