JAKARTA - British businessman, former chairman of the board of directors of British Airways, Martin Broughton, claims his consortium that proposed the purchase of Chelsea football club has the support of investors from around the world, with the same mission of maintaining the status of the team from the city of London.
"It's a group of individuals from all over the world ... big money. It's all going to come from their own money, no timeline going out, and from four or five continents," Broughton said of his consortium in an interview on BBC radio. Reuters, Saturday.
"These guys are committed to keeping Chelsea at the level it is today, a prestigious championship winning team," added Broughton, who claims to have been a Chelsea supporter since 1955.
Broughton, who was also chairman of Liverpool's board of directors, joined a consortium initiated by World Athletics president Sebastian Coe and is the first group to have expressed interest in buying Chelsea following sanctions against Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich over the invasion of Ukraine.
Abramovich's frozen assets were taken over by the British government, including the process of buying and selling Chelsea's ownership.
Broughton said the consortium was open to the idea of Chelsea supporters buying a stake in the club in the future, something that could be of interest to the British government.
"We think the winner of this bid must be a fan-friendly consortium," Broughton said as quoted by Antara.
Another interested person, British property businessman Nick Candy, who has the support of two South Korean companies Hana Financial Group and C&P Sports Limited on Friday (18/3), said he was ready to buy Chelsea for £2 billion (approximately Rp37.8 trillion).
But Broughton refused to reveal the size of his bid to buy Chelsea, but claimed the value was competitive.
In addition to the two groups, the Rickett family, owners of the United States baseball club Chicago Cubs, also stated that they had made an offer to buy Chelsea in collaboration with the founder of the capital-collecting company Citadel, Ken Griffin.
Other fans are also expected to be confirmed in the next few days, including Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss who collaborated with Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club owner Tedd Boehly, British businessman Jonathan Goldstein and British Conservative Party politician Daniel Finkelstein.
Chelsea are scheduled to travel to second tier Middlesbrough on Saturday evening (Sunday CEST) for the FA Cup quarter-finals.
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