There’s been rumours for some time that Roman Abramovich would bring an end to his ownership of Chelsea if given the right opportunity to do so.
Like other Premier League clubs have found, it’s hard to find the right buyers given how much the value of English football has increased in recent decades.
For someone to purchase Chelsea and go through the stadium rebuild, they’d need very deep pockets. It’s a Billionaire’s Club, and Jim Ratcliffe is a member of that.
As the story goes, the Ineos chief made attempts to buy the London club before going for Ligue 1’s Nice. The French takeover is now complete, and L’Equipe have sat down for a chat with the businessman.
The French newspaper asked Ratcliffe, given his attempt to buy Chelsea, what was his first choice as a club, and he explained: “We didn’t have a first choice, that’s not the way we think about business.”
“In life, if you buy a house and say you absolutely must have it, you will surely spend more money and you will be disappointed. If you look at all the houses available in the area and you like three or four, you’ll do a better job. You have to look upstream and we did it well by talking to several clubs.”
That would suggest that the price at which Abramovich was willing to sell wasn’t attractive enough for Ineos and those making the decisions within the group.
Instead, Ratcliffe has bought himself a nice alternative on the French Riviera.
