The battle to buy Chelsea: what we know about the main bidders

The Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss was first to go public regarding Roman Abramovich’s desire to sell and to declare an interest in buying the club. He has teamed up with investors including Todd Boehly, an American who part-owns baseball’s LA Dodgers, and Jonathan Goldstein, a British businessman who is the CEO of Cain International and a Tottenham fan. They submitted an offer between £2bn and £2.5bn some days ago and have been confident of winning the race to buy Chelsea but the picture has been complicated by the emergence of new bidders. Boehly was rebuffed by Abramovich when he made an offer for the club in 2019.

The Ricketts family, owners of the Chicago Cubs, have joined forces with the hedge fund tycoon Ken Griffin, who is valued by Forbes at $26.5bn (£20.2bn). Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel Asset Management but is operating in a private capacity. The Ricketts family, who announced on Wednesday they would bid on Friday, first made an attempt to buy Chelsea in 2018. They believe their success in winning the World Series with the Cubs in 2016 and major redevelopment of the team’s historic Wrigley Field show they would be worthy owners of the Premier League club, whose Stamford Bridge stadium could be renovated.

Martin Broughton, a former chairman of British Airways, is planning to front a bid and has support from Sebastian Coe and financial muscle from Creative Artists Agency, a US company whose portfolio includes the football agency Base, and Evolution Media Capital. Broughton, a Chelsea fan, was briefly chairman of Liverpool in 2010 and there would be a seat on the board for Coe, the World Athletics president and a fellow Chelsea supporter, if this offer succeeds. Coe is a former Conservative MP and