Update

Chelsea fans protest against Ricketts' bid for club before Brentford clash

Chelsea fans protested against the Ricketts bid before Brentford game; in 2019, leaked emails showed family patriarch Joe Ricketts used Islamophobic language; a Chelsea Supporters' Trust survey says 77 per cent of fans disapprove of bid; family again commits to "diversity and inclusion"

Saturday 2 April 2022 14:01, UK

The Ricketts family pledged to put "diversity and inclusion" at the heart of Chelsea as fans protested their bid to buy the club outside Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Between 50-100 Chelsea supporters gathered ahead of Saturday's Premier League clash at home to Brentford to demonstrate against the Ricketts family's bid to buy Chelsea.

The Chelsea Supporters' Trust said earlier on Saturday its membership "neither supports nor has confidence in" the potential new owners and that 77 per cent of members polled did not support the Ricketts' family bid.

The family have committed in previous statements to being diverse and inclusive and doubled down on that pledge in a statement on Saturday.

It said: "Over the past fortnight, our bid team has met with several supporter groups to explain our vision for Chelsea Football Club. In those meetings, and by letter to all groups, we have shared a set of specific commitments we will make to fans, if our bid is successful.

"We believe these are far-reaching and certainly include an absolute commitment on the part of the Ricketts Family and the bid team to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of the club.

"We look forward to more meetings - including with the Chelsea Supporters' Trust - over the coming days and to making a public reiteration of our values and commitments."

The Chicago Cubs-owning Ricketts are among the final four bidders aiming to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich. Cubs chiefs and siblings Tom and Laura Ricketts front the family's candidacy to take over at the west London club.

Father Joe Ricketts, who has no role at the Cubs or in the bid to buy Chelsea, used Islamophobic language in emails sent between 2009 and 2013 that were leaked in 2019. The 80-year-old later apologised.

Chelsea fans have voiced concerns consistently on social media, and now the CST has added further weight to those worries.

"At present, it is clear that our membership neither supports nor has confidence in the Ricketts family's bid for the club," read a CST statement. "This is reflective of wider concerns articulated by large, vocal sections of Chelsea's supporter base.

"The CST Board is guided by our membership, and thus we do not currently believe it is in the best interests of our members for the Ricketts family's bid to succeed.

"We await further public detail from the Ricketts family on concrete steps they will take to address the well-documented concerns of Chelsea supporters.

"Should the Ricketts publicly set out clear and detailed plans on how they will address support concerns, we may survey our members again in the next week."

Tom Ricketts has built bridges with the Muslim community in Chicago since his father's emails surfaced in 2019, and continues to apologise for his father's comments.

The Ricketts have been adding advisory partners in fine-tuning their bid ahead of the April 11 deadline for improved offers, but their bid is understood to be funded entirely by cash.

Hedge fund supremo Ken Griffin has added his significant personal financial clout behind the Ricketts' bid for Chelsea.

Blues supporters continue to raise fears over the Ricketts' candidacy to buy the club, however, with those issues crystallised in the CST survey.

"Last week, the Chelsea Supporters' Trust stated that the Ricketts family must urgently and publicly address supporter concerns - especially with regard to inclusivity, given both past and recent statements by members of the family," read the CST statement.

"We also committed to surveying our members as to their confidence and support in the Ricketts family's bid for Chelsea FC.

"Yesterday we conducted a snap survey of our membership. We asked our membership whether, based on information in the public domain as of April 1, they had confidence that the Ricketts family would run an inclusive and successful club, and we asked whether they supported the Ricketts family's bid.

"Our members have given a clear message in this regard: 72 per cent of those who responded do not currently have confidence that the Ricketts family would run an inclusive and successful club, with five per cent of respondents believing they would.

"Similarly, 77 per cent of members who responded do not support the Ricketts family's bid for Chelsea FC and three per cent of respondents are in support.

"It is essential that the new owners of Chelsea FC have the confidence of the supporter base and demonstrate an understanding of the values that we stand for."

Abramovich put Chelsea up for sale on March 2, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The 55-year-old was then sanctioned by the UK Government and later the EU, with Downing Street claiming to have proven his links to Vladimir Putin.

Chelsea have been granted a special Government licence to continue operating, though under strict terms. Abramovich cannot profit from Chelsea's sale, but had already vowed to write off the club's £1.5billion debt.

LA Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly and British business titan Jonathan Goldstein, Sir Martin Broughton and Lord Sebastian Coe, the Chicago Cubs-owning Ricketts family and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca are the four remaining contenders.