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The Chelsea Football Club bid joined by seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton will not be selected as the preferred bid, reports say.
The leading English football club has been involved in a lengthy sale process since first being put up for sale by its long-time owner, Roman Abramovich, at the start of March and then being seized by the UK government.
Mercedes F1 driver Hamilton’s involvement in a consortium led by Martin Broughton was made public earlier this month, along with the participation of tennis legend Serena Williams.
And though he is a long-time fan of Chelsea’s rival London club Arsenal, Hamilton spoke keenly about the prospect of being involved in the ownership of the Blues during the latest F1 grand prix weekend at Imola.
The consortium joined by Hamilton was one of four making it into the final round of the sale process overseen by the US advisory firm The Raine Group, and was then left as one of the three remaining candidates when one of the rival bids dropped out.
Yet the Broughton-led group was effectively taken out of the running on Friday with the news – reported by both Reuters and BBC Sport – that another consortium is set to be named the preferred bidder.
That is the consortium led by Todd Boehly, the co-owner of Major League Baseball’s LA Dodgers.
Before the news came out, the race to become Chelsea’s new owner had taken another F1-adjacent twist, with the sudden announcement of a last-minute £4.25billion bid by Jim Ratcliffe – the chairman INEOS, which is the part-owner of the very Mercedes F1 team that Hamilton drives for.
