Chelsea takeover: Boehly consortium set to enter 'exclusive talks' to buy the club, per reports

A decision on Chelsea's next owners could be coming soon

Chelsea might finally have a new owner soon. Todd Boehly's consortium will now enter exclusive talks to acquire Chelsea, as reported by multiple sources. The news comes after Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Britain's richest man and current owner of Ligue 1 club Nice reportedly tabled a last-minute £4.25billion bid to buy Chelsea. However, the group headed by Boehly, the LA Dodgers part-owner, is considered at the moment the best positioned one to buy the club in the next weeks. 

Two other consortiums, one led by Boston Celtics part-owner and Atalanta owner Stephen Pagliuca and another led by Sir Martin Broughton (with Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris on board) have failed as reported by CBS insider Ben Jacobs and this lead to a race between the Boehly consortium who is now favorite to take over and the one from Ratcliffe whose interest only became public only on Friday. 

The process of the sale of Chelsea football club is a unique one, set in motion by U.K. sanctions on current owner Roman Abramovich in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Given the uncertain nature of Chelsea's current ownership state, the Raine Group has been overseeing the process along with input from the U.K. government, which has dictated the terms under which Chelsea is currently being run. The club was frozen along with other Abramovich assets which is what led to this rushed process for finding a new buyer.

Chelsea currently sit third in the Premier League with 66 points. The club was eliminated from the Champions League's quarterfinals by Real Madrid and will play the FA Cup final against Liverpool on May 15. The new ownership is expected to take over before the end of May but considerable uncertainty about the time table remains.