The Ricketts family, a Nebraska -based dynasty that owns the Chicago Cubs, have decided against making final bid to buy Chelsea Football Club stating that “certain issues could not be addressed given the unusual dynamics around the sales process.” The Ricketts family, part of a consortium that includes hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin (much more on him in a bit) and Cleveland Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert, insist that their the decision to withdraw from the process is not related to the Chelsea supporter backlash against them.
That backlash stems mainly from Islamophobic emails written and sent out by family patriarch Joe Ricketts in 2009. The Ricketts family claim simply claim that they were unable to reach agreement, with all parties on a final offer that they felt comfortable submitting.
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“The Ricketts-Griffin-Gilbert group has decided, after careful consideration, not to submit a final bid for Chelsea FC,” the statement reads. “In the process of finalising the proposal, it became increasingly clear that certain issues could not be addressed given the unusual dynamics around the sales process.
“We have great admiration for Chelsea and its fans and we wish the new owners well.”
Ricketts-Griffin-Gilbert all made their money in financial services/investment banking, a sector of the economy with very little oversight and almost no true regulation.
Corporate crime runs rampant in this sector, as the fines for committing fraud are basically laughable when compared to the monetary figures that are being made here. There really is no true deterrent to white-collar crime as pretty much nobody ever goes to jail for having committed it.
Thus, corruption and grift are pervasive. With that in mind, I highly suggest you watch the new HBO mini-series documentary “Gaming Wall Street,” in which some of Griffin’s transgressions are covered. Remember the early 2021 GameStop short squeeze?
When retail investors, led by the Wall Street Bets sub-Redditt beat the big boys at their own game?
Then you might recall Robinhood, the trading platform that claims to be for the little guy, halted trading on GameStop, in order to appease the top tier, big money in the market. Why? They’re funded by Griffin’s firm, Citadel. Basically, Ken Griffin in their business daddy, and they had to follow his orders. Yikes!
Hard to root for Griffin, in any way shape or form, so it’s good news that he and the Ricketts family didn’t get what they wanted here. That now leaves the Chelsea FC ownership derby down to the consortiums led by Todd Boehly, Sir Martin Broughton and Steve Pagliuca.
They have until Thursday to submit their final offers to Raine Group in their effort to buy out current owner and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.