Matt Lawton, Matt DickinsonThe Todd Boehly-led consortium has
been selected as the preferred bidder to
buy Chelsea despite a dramatic late
move by Sir Jim Ratcliffe to hijack the
process with a £4.25 billion offer.
As The Times revealed yesterday,
Ratcliffe, one of Britain’s richest men,
attempted to jump ahead of the three
American-dominated consortiums
that had made it to the final stage of the
process.
Sources said last night that it was
likely that Ratcliffe’s bid had come toolate, with the group led by Los Angeles
Dodgers co-owner Boehly — and
funded largely by the California-based
investment firm Clearlake Capital —
about to be put forward for UK govern-
ment and Premier League approval.
While there has been no official con-
firmation, either from Chelsea, their
bankers at the Raine Group, who are
managing the sale on behalf of Roman
Abramovich, or the rival consortiums,
it is believed the Boehly group has been
told it has won what has been an un-
precedented contest to buy one of
Europe’s most successful clubs.
An official announcement is expect-ed to be made by Raine by Monday,
even if some insiders remain wary of
the threat posed by Ratcliffe.
The three groups that had been
shortlisted were at Stamford Bridge this
week making their final presentations
to the club’s hierarchy and Raine. While
the groups led by former British Air-
ways chairman Sir Martin Broughton
and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen
Pagliuca appear to have been told their
bids have been unsuccessful, sources
insist they too have not given up.
They are clinging to the fact that any
bid remains subject to the approval of
the Treasury, amid questions about theSp or t
SATURDAY APRIL 30 2022Le Tissier
unmasked
On Covid, conspiracy theories
and his dispute with LinekerPAGES 6-7MATTHEW ASHTON /AMA/GETTY IMAGES
Rangnick: We
can’t compete
Ian WhittellRalf Rangnick has warned his succes-
sor Erik ten Hag that Manchester
United struggle to recruit players and
have fallen behind Manchester City,
Liverpool and Chelsea as a favoured
destination for the world’s biggest stars.
The 63-year-old German will remain
in a consultancy role with the club next
season while taking charge of the
Austria national team after signing a
two-year contract yesterday.
He will focus on recruitment for
United under Ten Hag, the new manag-
er, having been critical of the club’s
work in that area during his five months
in temporary charge of the team.
But while Rangnick claims that the
Borussia Dortmund striker Erling
Haaland is the sort of player United
should be targeting in the summer, he
concedes that Old Trafford is not the
preferred destination it once was.
“As a club with regards to supporters,
the stadium, the quality of the training
ground, I would say yes, it definitely is,”
Rangnick said when asked if United re-
main an attractive club for global stars.
“But we also have to be realistic. As
soon as clubs like Chelsea, Liverpool,
City are involved, you need good
reasons and somebody needs to explain
to the players. And that is why it is also
Continued on page 9US ban for
Sky pundit
Matt Lawton
Chief Sports CorrespondentA Sky Sports boxing pundit was
blocked from flying to the United States
because of his past links to the alleged
Irish crime boss Daniel Kinahan.
Matthew Macklin was due to travel
to Las Vegas to be part of the Sky team
for tonight’s super-featherweight title
bout between Shakur Stevenson and
Óscar Valdez. But Macklin, 39, a former
world-title contender, was stopped
from boarding the aircraft in the UK on
the instruction of US authorities,
because of his previous association
with Kinahan.
Macklin insists that he severed all
business links with Kinahan five years
ago. Kinahan set up the MTK Global
management agency — named after
Macklin, whose nickname is Mack The
Knife — in 2012. MTK, which previous-
ly listed boxers including the world
heavyweight champion Tyson Fury
and Billy Joe Saunders among its
fighters, announced this month that it
would be disbanding.
The US has imposed sanctions on
Kinahan, 44, and offered a $5 million
reward for information that leads to his
arrest, describing the Kinahan cartel as
a “murderous organisation”.
Full story, page 22THE END GAME
Boehly chosen as preferred Chelsea buyer despite last-ditch Ratcliffe bid
SATURDAY APRIL 30 2022Boehly chosen as preferred Chelsea buyer despite last-ditch Ratcliffe bid
£1.54 billion debt owed to Abramovich
when the sanctions imposed against
the Russian oligarch have made it
impossible for him to write off the loan.
They also wonder whether Ratcliffe’s
intervention could complicate matters
further.
The government licence that has
allowed Chelsea to keep operating
expires on May 31 and the club must be
sold by then. The view among insiders
is that Ratcliffe needed to join the race
much earlier given that the checks
being carried out by the Premier
League, as part of its owners’ and
Continued on page 2