The Times - UK (2022-04-30)

2 2GS Saturday April 30 2022 | the times

WEEKEND

BRIEFING

Ones to watch

It is winner takes all as

the Women’s Six

Nations concludes with

England away to France in

the grand-slam decider.

England have not lost a

match since 2019.

Today 2.15pm, BBC2

Everton manager Frank

Lampard welcomes his

old club, Chelsea, to

Goodison Park. Everton could

begin their game tomorrow

five points behind Burnley, in

17th, who face Watford today.

Tomorrow 2pm, Sky Main Ev

Guess the star

Name this two-times Olympic

champion from Great Britain.

She competed at the 2016

Rio Games and the delayed

2020 Tokyo Games, winning

gold in the team pursuit and

madison.

Answer in the quiz, page 11

The Crucible

The World Snooker

Championship final begins at

the Crucible in Sheffield. Judd

Trump or Mark Williams will

face John Higgins or Ronnie

O’Sullivan, who is chasing a

record-equalling seventh title.

Tomorrow from 1pm, BBC2

Guess the season

Tottenham Hotspur promoted

to top flight with highest

average league attendance;

Denis and Leslie Compton

help Arsenal beat Liverpool in

FA Cup final; England lose to

US at the World Cup

Answer, page 13

On the box

TODAY

12.30pm Newcastle United v

Liverpool, Premier League

BT Sport 1, talkSPORT

3pm Gloucester v Bath,

Gallagher Premiership

BT Sport 2

5.30pm Manchester City v

Leeds United, Premier League

Sky Sports Main Event,

talkSPORT

TOMORROW

12pm Celtic v Rangers,

Cinch Scottish Premiership

Sky Sports Main Event

3pm London Irish v Wasps,

Gallagher Premiership

BT Sport 1, talkSPORT2

directors’ test, on the main bidders have

already started.

The offer sent to Raine by Ratcliffe is

more than £4 billion. The owner of

Ineos, the petrochemicals giant, held

discussions with Bruce Buck, the

Chelsea chairman, on Thursday and

pledged to invest £1.75 billion in the club

over the next ten years as well as match-

ing Abramovich’s £2.5 billion valuation.

“We put an offer in [yesterday] morn-

ing,” Ratcliffe told The Times. “We are

the only British bid. Our motives are to

try and create a very fine club in London.

We have no profit motive because we

make our money in other ways.”

The Boehly-bid also has heavy-

weight backing beyond Clearlake, not

least in the form of London property

investor Jonathan Goldstein and

Daniel Finkelstein, the Tory peer,

Times columnist and Chelsea

season-ticket holder. His consortium

includes the 86-year-old Swiss billion-

aire Hansjorg Wyss, who was the first to

declare his interest in taking over the

club from Abramovich in March.

The Broughton-led bid was princi-

pally funded by Josh Harris and David

Blitzer, two American businessmen

who would have to divest their stake in

Crystal Palace — believed to be less

than 20 per cent — were they to

become the part-owners of another

Premier League club. Sebastian Coe is

also part of their bid team, as are Lewis

Hamilton and Serena Williams.

The bid by Pagliuca, co-owner of the

Boston Celtics basketball team, was

complicated by the fact that he owns

Atalanta, the Serie A club.

This week, all the bidding groups

were asked to increase their bids by

£500,000, taking their total financial

commitment to close to £4 billion when

they have to commit more than

£1 billion to stadium redevelopment

and future investment in the playing

staff. There is also a requirement to

make a commitment to the club that

prevents the new owner from selling a

majority stake before 2032.

Explaining his reason for bidding for

Chelsea, Ratcliffe said that he hoped

that putting it in British hands would be

welcomed by the supporters.

“There is an argument that Chelsea is

a national asset,” Ratcliffe said. “When

you think of the stature of London in

the football community in Europe, it

does not have a Bayern Munich, Real

Madrid or Barcelona and never has

had, dominating for a period of time in

the Champions League. That is our am-

bition, to create that club for London.”

While late to the bidding process,

Ratcliffe said that he saw no reason why

his offer should be discounted. He said

that he envisaged rebuilding Stamford

Bridge and felt that Ineos had good

experience in taking on a project of that

scale.

“We envisage a world-class stadium

with world-class capacity,” he said. “We

don’t feel comfortable moving out for

four or five years so we would have to

work our way around the existing

ground. But with sophisticated civil

engineering these days and we manage

lots of very big capital projects at Ineos,

a €4 billion [about £3.35 billion] project

in Antwerp, a €2 billion project in the

Middle East. That does not daunt us.”

Ineos has increasingly invested in

sport in recent years, taking over the

former Team Sky cycling team, backing

Sir Ben Ainslie’s bid for the America’s

Cup and buying a stake in the Mercedes

Formula One team. Ineos also owns

Nice football club, which would have to

be sold if the Chelsea bid were success-

ful because of the danger of clashing in

European competition. “It’s too early to

talk about that,” Ratcliffe said.

When asked about buying a Premier

League club to add to the Ineos port-

folio, Ratcliffe has said that he did not

want to spend “stupid money” and that

English clubs are overvalued.

Ratcliffe added: “If you look at the big

football clubs and American teams,

Chelsea sits about right in the hierarchy

in value. It’s expensive but not foolish.”

Ratcliffe, who used to be a Manches-

ter United supporter, has had season

tickets at Stamford Bridge for about a

decade, until the pandemic. He said

that he started watching Chelsea

regularly when work brought him to

London.

He hopes that Ineos being a stream-

lined bid — one private company led by

its founder Ratcliffe and friends Andy

Currie and John Reece — would help

win the day.

“I don’t know if there are complica-

tions with the government approving a

syndicate. We are three northern gram-

mar school boys,” he said. “We can

move very quickly. I met with Bruce

and said we would like to make an offer,

which we did.”

‘We’re only British bid

CONTINUED FROM FRONT

Is there anything to stop Chelsea

considering an offer such as the

Ineos one after the fixed deadline

has passed?

There is nothing legally to prevent

that from happening, according to

sources with knowledge of the

process. It has no doubt infuriated

other bidders and put Raine, the

New York banking group that has

been commissioned to find a buyer,

in a difficult position, but ultimately

Roman Abramovich, who is selling

the club, still calls the shots.

However, it is very, very late in the

day, with the preferred bidder in the

Boehly group having been chosen.

Can Abramovich control matters

even though he has been

sanctioned by the UK government?

Yes. He still has control over the sale

and will have the final say over

which offer is accepted. What he

cannot do is have any control of the

money from the sale — that will all

be put into a frozen account with

the idea that it will go towards

helping victims of the war in

Ukraine.

What about this suggestion that

the £1.5 billion debt to

Abramovich’s company needs to

be paid off?

That cannot really happen under the

terms of his sanctioning.

What about the government’s role?

It has to provide a special licence for

the sale of the club, which will detail

the process, such as the proceeds

going into a frozen account.

Are there any time restraints on

the sale?

Very much so. Chelsea are operating

under a government licence but

that expires on May 31. It is even

possible that the government could

seize the club as an asset and stop

it operating, although that scenario

is unlikely.

Nadine Dorries, the culture

secretary, said this week that

Chelsea are on “borrowed time”.

Could Ratcliffe still

get his hands on club?

Preferred bidder has track

record of sporting success

Tomás Hill López-Menchero

who is in the boehly group?

The Boehly Group consists of Todd

Boehly, co-owner of the LA Dodgers

baseball team, the British property

tycoon Jonathan Goldstein and the

Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss. The

US investment firm Clearlake Capital

will take on a 66 per cent stake in

Chelsea if the Boehly takeover is

successful.

are there any other well-

known backers involved?

The Conservative peer and Times

columnist Daniel Finkelstein is

involved in the bid while earlier this

month, it was reported that Geroge

Osborne, the former chancellor and

Chelsea supporter, was advising

the consortium through Robey

Warshaw, the advisory firm he joined

last year.

how did they make their

money?

Boehly worked for the financial

services firm Guggenheim Partners

and founded Eldridge Industries, a

company that has invested in sport,

media and property. Goldstein is

chief executive of the investment

firm Cain International, which

manages $10.8 billion (£8.6 billion)

worth of assets. The 86-year-old

Wyss made his fortune by selling the

medical device manufacturer Synthes

for $20 billion in 2012 and has a net

worth of about $4 billion.

what’s their past experience in

sports ownership?

Boehly was part of a group that

bought the LA Dodgers in 2012 for

Only Chelsea season-

ticket holders were

at Stamford Bridge

when N’Golo Kante,

left, and Malang Sarr

failed to stop Eddie

Nketiah from scoring