Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s bid to buy Chelsea has been “rejected out of hand” but reportedly remains interested in buying the London club.
The 69-year-old is the CEO of Ineos Group Ltd and is regarded to be Britain’s richest man.
He submitted a last-minute £4.25 billion bid to buy the Blues on Friday, though the proposal has been rejected.
Ineos director Tom Crotty told Bloomberg on Wednesday: “We’ve been rejected out of hand by Raine but we will keep reminding people we are still here.”
British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has made a late bid to buy Chelsea worth over $5B, reports @DickinsonTimes
Ratcliffe owns Ligue 1 club Nice and has also invested in Formula One team Mercedes 💰 pic.twitter.com/AwwWdaFGUO
— B/R Football (@brfootball) April 29, 2022
The bid could not be considered given the approach has not followed the process set out by the US bank in charge of the sale, the Raine Group.
A consortium led by American businessman Todd Boehly have been named as the preferred bidders by the Raine Group and could finalise the deal by the end of the week.
Chelsea was put up for sale by Roman Abramovich following the recent attack by Russia on Ukraine.
The club is currently under a number of sanctions, which could be lifted soon once the sale has been finalised.
