Chelsea could receive the biggest price ever paid for a sports team, with a bid of over £3 billion, as competition to buy the club from Roman Abramovich heats up.
The Blues were thrown into turmoil earlier this month when Roman Abramovich, the club's Russian billionaire owner, was sanctioned by the government due to his close relations to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom the UK is attempting to suffocate following his decision to invade Ukraine.
Chelsea has been hit particularly hard by the sanctions, and they are presently unable to recruit players, accept new contracts, sell match day tickets, or increase their away day travel budget over £20,000, despite being granted a special license to continue their urgent hunt for new ownership.
According to the Athletic, the Raine Group has managed the club's sale, and 20 offers have been received after interested parties were given until last Friday to submit their bids.
Initially, there were concerns that Chelsea would only receive around £2 billion as a result of Abramovich's assets being frozen, combined with uncertainty over the club's future, but given the overwhelming interest in purchasing Chelsea, bidders are expected to make an offer of more than £3 billion, according to the report.
If that final bid is accepted, Chelsea will have received the biggest money ever paid for a club in sports history, surpassing Joseph Tsai's £2.5 billion purchase of the basketball team Brooklyn Nets.
The New York Mets baseball team, the Houston Rockets of the NBA, and the Carolina Panthers of the NFL all received offers of around £2 billion.
Chelsea's proposed offer would completely outbid the current record for the highest price paid for a football team, which stands at £790 million when the Glazer family completed their purchase of Manchester United shares between 2003 and 2005.
The New York Mets baseball team, the Houston Rockets of the NBA, and the Carolina Panthers of the NFL all received offers of around £2 billion.
Chelsea's proposed offer would completely outbid the current record for the highest price paid for a football team, which stands at £790 million when the Glazer family completed their purchase of Manchester United shares between 2003 and 2005.
Chelsea received bids over the weekend, but none of them will be considered after missing Friday's deadline due to the enormity of the transaction - and a winner will be chosen in the second week of April, according to the source.
By that time, Raine hopes to have narrowed down the final candidates to just four, and the company will need to apply for a second license from the government to complete the deal.
The government does not want Chelsea to fail, so it is in their best interests to complete the takeover as soon as possible.
Abramovich is not allowed to accept any money from the sale, therefore the proceeds will have to be put into a frozen bank account first.
After a tumultuous end to Abramovich's reign, a number of frontrunners have emerged to take leadership of the club.
The Ricketts family, who own the Chicago Cubs, has teamed up with entrepreneur Ken Griffin - who is worth over £20 billion - to purchase the Blues and is expected to fly to London to speak with stakeholders.
The government does not want Chelsea to fail, hence it is within their power to intervene.
A bid from a Todd Boehly-led consortium in the United States, as well as one from London property developer Nick Candy, is also a strong contender.
Candy's consortium boosted their offer for Chelsea to more than £2.5 billion on Monday night after getting fresh backing from an undisclosed South Korean firm.
Candy's Blue Football Consortium is said to have provided evidence of financing to the Raine Group, which is narrowing down approximately 50 original bids to three or four finalists.
Bob Finch, a former oil trader and venture capitalist, Jonathan Lourie, a hedge fund manager and real estate investor, and Nizam Al-Bassam, the co-founder of asset management firm Centricus, and its CEO Garth Ritchie have all surfaced as potential successors to Abramovich.
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