Boston Celtics owner emerges as latest to target Chelsea transfer

A joint owner of the Boston Celtics basketball team and Atalanta, the Italian football club, has emerged as one of the parties who have tabled offers to buy Chelsea FC.

Sky News has learnt that Stephen Pagliuca, a prominent private equity executive who co-chairs Bain Capital, submitted a bid for the Premier League club ahead of a deadline late last week.

It was unclear on Thursday who Mr Pagliuca’s partners in his bid for Chelsea had been.

With wealth estimated in the hundreds of millions – rather than billions – of dollars, sports industry insiders said it was unlikely that he had bid for Chelsea alone.

If Mr Pagliuca does not make it to a shortlist of bidders expected to be selected imminently by Raine Group, the merchant bank handling the sale, he could seek to team up with one of the remaining consortia.

The field of publicly disclosed bidders and co-investors has continued to expand since last Friday’s deadline, transforming the auction of Chelsea into potentially the most lucrative sale of a sports franchise in history.

Sky News can also reveal that Empowerment IP, a rights monetisation firm headed by the sports financier Stephen Duval, submitted a revised £3.1bn proposal to Raine in the last few days.

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Of that sum, £1bn is said to have been offered to acquire Chelsea’s share capital, with £2.1bn ring-fenced for investment in the club’s Stamford Bridge stadium, players and academy.

Empowerment, which has close links to the Mixed Martial Arts start Conor McGregor, has included a fan bond in its offer that would commit to Chelsea supporters owning no less than 25% of the shares.

It emerged on Thursday that Raine had asked bidders to give binding assurances about future spending on the club and its ground before it finalised the shortlist of contenders to succeed Roman Abramovich as its owner.

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“They want guarantees about future capital funding for the club and stadium, and cash on the balance sheet, so that they can be certain they are picking the best future owner of Chelsea,” an insider said.

Mr Pagliuca’s emergence as a bidder fits the cast list of those who have made pitches to buy the south-west London club from Mr Abramovich.

At least five existing owners of US basketball and baseball teams are among the bidders for Chelsea, with consortia involving the LA Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly and the Philadelphia 76ers backer Josh Harris among the serious contenders to buy the club following Mr Abramovich’s sanctioning.

The cluster of American sports billionaires circling Chelsea underlines the extent to which the English Premier League has become a magnet for financiers from across the Atlantic during the last 20 years.

Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United have all been acquired by US-based businessmen during that period, and a significant number of other top-flight clubs also have American backing.

Sky News revealed on Thursday that the feared American hedge fund which owns AC Milan had agreed to help fund the property developer Nick Candy’s bid for Chelsea.

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Elliott Management, the New York-based investor headed by Paul Singer, a prominent supporter of Donald Trump during the Republican’s presidency, is said to have committed a substantial amount of capital to Mr Candy’s offer.

The fund has controlled AC Milan since 2018, although recent reports in Italy have suggested that it may seek to sell the club in the next couple of years, having seen it re-emerge as a powerhouse of European football.

A frenzy of bidding among major global investors, billionaires and sports-owners has raised the prospect of Mr Abramovich’s original £3bn asking price being met.

Either three or four candidates are expected to be told by Raine that they will have a chance to strike a deal to buy Chelsea by the end of April.

Prior to being sanctioned, Mr Abramovich had said he intended to write off a £1.5bn loan to the club and hand the net proceeds from the sale to a new charity that he would set up to benefit the victims of the war in Ukraine.

The Premier League has disqualified Mr Abramovich from being a director of Chelsea, but has said the move would not affect players’ ability to train or fulfil the club’s fixtures.

This week, the government agreed to further amendments to a special licence which allows Chelsea to continue operating, enabling it to resume selling tickets for away matches, with the proceeds being held by the Premier League and earmarked for a charity helping Ukrainian war victims.

Chelsea can also now receive £30m from its parent company to ease cash flow constraints caused by the current crisis.

A rapid sale is seen as essential if Chelsea is to avert the uncertainty that would trigger the break-up of one of the top flight’s most valuable playing squads.

Last season’s Champions League-winners have been thrown into disarray by Russia’s war on Ukraine, with Mr Abramovich initially proposing to place the club in the care of its foundation and then formally putting it up for sale.

Mr Abramovich had initially slapped a £3bn price tag on the Stamford Bridge outfit, with the net proceeds being donated to a charitable foundation set up to benefit the victims of the war in Ukraine.

Whoever buys the club will require the government’s consent in the form of a special licence as well as the approval of the Premier League under its fit and proper ownership test.

Neither Mr Pagliuca nor Bain Capital’s public relations advisers responded to a request for comment, while Empowerment declined to comment.

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