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Ministers and the Premier League will be presented with a preferred bid for Chelsea Football Club in three weeks’ time, paving the way for a change of ownership to take place by the end of next month.
Sky News has learnt that a letter sent to the four remaining contenders to buy the Blues over the weekend indicates that the government will be approached to issue a licence enabling the sale during the week of April 18.
The additional detail underlines the speed at which Raine Group, the merchant bank overseeing the sale process, is conducting one of the most hotly contested corporate auctions in sporting history.
Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, has publicly indicated that it will examine a preferred bidder under its owners and directors test as speedily as possible, citing a previous club takeover that was approved within ten days.
In recent weeks, Sky News has exclusively revealed a series of key details of the Chelsea sale process as Roman Abramovich relinquishes control of the club he has owned since 2003.
At the weekend, it emerged that the quartet of bidders had been handed a deadline of April 11 – the day before the second leg of Chelsea’s Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.
They have been told by Raine that they must commit at least £1bn to future investment in the club if they are to succeed in the battle to end Mr Abramovich’s tenure.
The additional funding must be made available for the Blues’ Stamford Bridge stadium, playing squad and other areas of development.
Raine’s insistence on the pool of capital for investment is likely to go some way to reassuring supporters that its new owner will continue to back it with the kind of significant financial resource they have become accustomed to under the Russian-born businessman.
All four of the remaining bidders have significant experience in sports stadium infrastructure, a key consideration given Chelsea’s long-standing dilemma about the expansion…
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Source : skynews
