Roman Abramovich Thread

[Vesper 28,772]

Just now, Fernando said:

What happen to the Saudi Bid?

I thought they was the richest out of all them? 

they are deffo in the running, they easily beat the deadline

[Vesper 28,772]

Chelsea bidders shortlist to be narrowed down to three, new offers made

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/Chelsea-bidders-shortlist-be-narrowed-down-three-new-offers-made-2022-03-21

MANCHESTER, England, March 21 (Reuters) - Raine Group, a U.S. bank overseeing the sale of Premier League club Chelsea, plans to narrow down the shortlist of bidders to three on Monday or Tuesday, sources close to the deal told Reuters.

Chelsea were initially put up for sale by owner Roman Abramovich following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and before sanctions were imposed on the oligarch by the British government, effectively giving it control of the club.

Raine set a deadline of 2100 GMT last Friday for bids to be made, with several being made public, while sources close to the deal said many more had been submitted privately.

Some are only just being made public now, with London-based global investment firm Centricus confirming on Monday that they had offered to buy Chelsea, a bid driven by co-founder Nizar Al-Bassam and CEO Garth Ritchie, who are both said to be Blues season ticket holders.

Reports in the British media have named several other bidders, including Saudi Media, headed by businessman Mohamed Alkhereiji.

To move things forward, Reuters has been told that Raine, in consultation with the club, will narrow down the shortlist, with the process slowed by revised bids still coming in.

Over the next few weeks, a preferred buyer or buyers will be submitted to the government who must issue a special licence for any sale and who require evidence that Abramovich will not make any financial gain.

From there it will be up to the prospective buyer to pass the Premier League's Owners' and Directors' Test before completing their takeover.

The test outlines factors that would prohibit an individual from becoming an owner or director of a club. These include criminal convictions for a wide range of offences, a ban by a sporting or professional body and breaches of certain key football regulations, such as match-fixing.

The three bids made public on Friday were from groups led by British property developer Nick Candy, Chicago Cubs owners the Ricketts family and the pairing of former Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton and World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.

Candy's bid, while not assured of being on the shortlist, announced on Monday that they had held initial discussions with tech platform PrimaryBid, with a view to potentially considering a community enfranchisement model for Chelsea, should their bid be successful, focused on improving fan involvement and engagement.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[Vesper 28,772]

7 minutes ago, Hermione said:

Isn't Centricus worth over 20b?

they oversee around £40 billion in global assets

 

 

Centricus, a London-based asset management firm, has joined forces with Jonathan Lourie of Cheyne Capital and Talis Capital's Bob Finch, previously majority shareholder of FC Nordsjaelland in Denmark, to submit an offer prior to Friday night's deadline.

Lourie, Finch, Centricus' co-founder Nizar Al-Bassam and the firm's chief executive officer Garth Ritchie are all season-ticket holders at Stamford Bridge.

Centricus has advised FIFA and UEFA over funding in the past, and has access to significant funds. To underline this they have a staggering £40billion invested in technology companies, financial services and leisure companies.

'We oversee £40bn assets,' Al-Bassam said via Zoom on Sunday afternoon. 

'We've been focused on content for a number of years, the FIFA work, the UEFA work, is all built around our view that content is a very, very dominant aspect of technology going forward and sports is a very core, key aspect of content.' 

'There's a clock [on finding a new owner for Chelsea] ticking because the club is bleeding money at a faster rate than it should be while there's uncertainty there.

'I've had the same seats in the Tambling suite and the same seats in the West Stand for 10 years. I'm worried for the staff there when I see this turmoil. 

'We see the same people hosting us when we walk in. They're amazing to us. We see the same people in the stands looking after us and I'm feeling for them.

'We've tried to focus on a proposal which align the ownership of the club with long-term investors with a deep history with the club. If you look at the proposal we put forward, keeping it an entirely British finance proposal is core to that.

'There are plenty of very successful clubs financed by international investors but in this case after two decades of exceptional success by the club, the club has the fanbase with the resources to support the club to maintain that success. That's what's very unique about this proposal.'

While Al-Bassam loves the club, he was refreshingly honest about how he and the consortium wish to make a profit out of the Blues too.

'We've looked at the club in the past. There have been occasions where there were rumours of the club being available but ultimately all those projects were shelved.

'Our bid is all domestic, we don't have any foreign investors so we're using domestic capital which I think is quite noteworthy. We all attend the matches with our kids.

'I don't think any of us are coming purely because we're fans or purely because we love football. 

'It's really driven by the commercial opportunities. But it is a long-term investment. For us, you simply can't buy a club and expect to sell it in five or 10 years. The expectations from the fans, the regulators, be it the FA or Premier League or from the Government, would be not to have a sale of this club in the next five or 10 years.

'So this would have to be a very, very long-term commitment. The commitment just around either a stadium expansion or a new stadium is a half-decade commitment and that needs to be done in consultation with the community, the council and with fans.'

Elaborating further on that, Al-Bassam explained that commerical revenue could be enhanced in multiple ways for the west London outfit - including via sponsorship and their global network of footballers.

'It involves investing in clubs on a global basis in order to have the facilities to be able to manage talent,' he explained. 'The advantage of being able to invest in an MLS club, a Portuguese division two club, a club in Australia or Asia opens your horizons to being able to manage youth development.

'Chelsea has one of the largest loan books out there, they have a huge amount of talent, they recruit a lot of youth, they have a very big network clearly that can be leveraged.

'The price of what Chelsea will be acquired for at the peak today versus some of the cost of those other clubs to join the network could be quite attractive.

'So there is a business angle to this but the most important thing to remember is Chelsea's not broken today. We think Chelsea's well-managed fundamentally under sporting and business side.'

l-Bassam loves the club, he was refreshingly honest about how he and the consortium wish to make a profit out of the Blues too.

'We've looked at the club in the past. There have been occasions where there were rumours of the club being available but ultimately all those projects were shelved.

'Our bid is all domestic, we don't have any foreign investors so we're using domestic capital which I think is quite noteworthy. We all attend the matches with our kids.

 

Centricus chief executive officer Garth Ritchie is part of the consortium who want to buy Blues

He's joined forces with Jonathan Lourie of Cheyne Capital - who is also a Chelsea season-ticket holder

 

 

 

you may remember the firm from this:

 

UEFA Weighs $7 Billion Centricus Deal to Stop Super League

https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/uefa-is-said-to-discuss-eu6b-financing-proposal-from-centricus
 

 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,890]

1 hour ago, Fernando said:

What happen to the Saudi Bid?

I thought they was the richest out of all them? 

Hello Fernando,

You wrote this like a Brit but I always though you were an American. Am I wrong? 🙂

Edited March 21, 2022 by OhForAGreavsie

[Fernando 6,453]

8 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Hello Fernando,

You wrote this like a Brit but I always though you were an American. Am I wrong? 🙂

😃 nope, just American. 

But just because we are from here does not mean I want American owner. I want one that will have more money then Roman and want to invest in the club.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,890]

39 minutes ago, Fernando said:

😃 nope, just American. 

But just because we are from here does not mean I want American owner. I want one that will have more money then Roman and want to invest in the club.

I see thanks. It's just curiosity on part because I wouldn't expect non-Brits to phrase a sentence the way you did.

As for the the owners my take is that the following are entry level requirements. It's not that any bidder wins by offering these things; it's that no bid will even be considered unless it includes all of:

• Deep pockets.
• High calibre, competent, experienced people.
• Commitment to building a new stadium.
• Commitment to doing what is necessary to keep CFCM & CFCW competitive domestically and in Europe.
• Commitment to maintaining Cobham's standards.
• Commitment to retaining Thomas Tuchel.
• Commitment to retaining Neil Bath.
• Commitment to attempting to retain Maria Granaskaia.
• Commitment to continue the 'good citizen' behaviour the club has stood for under Roman.
• Commitment to non-executive fan involvement at board level.
• Commitment to working with the CPO.
• Commitment to retaining Peter Osgood's statue as a feature of any rebuild whether at Stamford Bridge or elsewhere.

Once the bidders have been whittled down to only those consortia matching these criteria, then we set about deciding which one is the best.

Edited March 21, 2022 by OhForAGreavsie

[Vesper 28,772]

'Ridiculous' to prevent Chelsea fans attending FA Cup semi-final, says MP Julian Knight

Chelsea are unable to generate new revenue, including from ticket sales, under the current licence imposed by the Government; Julian Knight said: "It is ridiculous that we face the prospect of a half-full Wembley for the Chelsea vs Palace FA Cup semi-final"

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/12572187/ridiculous-to-prevent-Chelsea-fans-attending-fa-cup-semi-final-says-mp-julian-knight

[MoroccanBlue 5,296]

What's stopping Chelsea fans buying tickets at the Palace end?

[King Kante 1,474]

The way I am looking at things, the options seem to be: 

1) Take the Saudi money, compete at the top end of the market, but continue to have the media against the club and run the risk of sanctions in future. 

2) Take on the Bohely group and hopefully be run like the Dippers.

3) Take on Woody/Ricketts and be run like Utd. 

4) Take on a fan led offer and go into the unknown. 

[Vesper 28,772]

18 minutes ago, MoroccanBlue said:

What's stopping Chelsea fans buying tickets at the Palace end?

they will refuse to sell you a ticket when they see your tattoo

 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,476]

"Within hours"

 

I see Sky Sports has their transfer team writing the headlines.

[Pizy 18,368]

Candy in “please notice me, daddy” mode now, huh? 😂

He just doesn’t seem like someone who should own a massive football club. 

[Laylabelle 9,351]

1 hour ago, MoroccanBlue said:

What's stopping Chelsea fans buying tickets at the Palace end?

Guess they'll have their own loyalty scheme to buy them like we would've used

So stupid..money could easily go elsewhere. 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,890]

2 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

What's stopping Chelsea fans buying tickets at the Palace end?

Those tickets will be sold to Palace season ticket holders and members only. If you're not on that database you can't buy a ticket for Wembley.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,890]

2 hours ago, King Kante said:

Take the Saudi money, compete at the top end of the market, but continue to have the media against the club and run the risk of sanctions in future.

We never compete at the top end of the market, we only spend at the top end. Whichever group comes in better grasp that very quickly or preferably already be aware of it.

[milka 3,344]