According to Sky Sports, Todd Boehly’s consortium is the preferred bidder to buy Chelsea despite a last-minute £4.25 billion bid from Sir Jim Ratcliffe on Friday. The Blues have been looking for a new owner after Roman Abramovich was sanctioned and have had four bidders fighting to do so.

With Roman Abramovich putting Chelsea on sale in early March, it saw the Blues’ Russian owner sanctioned by the Uk Government less than eight days later. Since then, the club have been in a state of limbo off the field with several bidders looking to get the club in their hands. However, after months of talks and reports, four bidders were shortlisted with a consortium led by Stephen Pagliuca, one led by Sir Martin Broughton, one led by Todd Boehly and one led by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

However, despite a last minute £4.25 billion bid from Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s consortium on Friday, Sky Sports has reported that Todd Boehly’s consortium has been named as the preferred bidder. The report has indicated that the Raine Group has to select a preferred bidder and they have picked Boehly’s consortium despite Ratcliffe’s late bid. Not only that, Pagliuca’s consortium is not amongst those preferred and neither is Sir Martin Broughton although they are yet to submit a bid.

Yet despite that, both parties, including Chelsea, believe that they can get all the proceedings done and dusted by May before the start of the new season in order to sort out everything both off and on the field. Sky Sports further reported that once the Raine Group does pick a preferred bidder, the government will have a decision to make and grant a new licence to allow the sale to go through.