One of the sporting world’s most prestigious clubs is up for sale. Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich officially announced a few weeks ago that he plans to sell the team. The United Kingdom government has since sanctioned the oligarch, which has expedited the process significantly as the club currently cannot operate regularly on a day-to-day basis. The Raine Group has been tasked with handling the sale and on Friday, we reached another significant time in this unprecedented series of events. Raine’s deadline for serious bids has come and gone. It is now time for those unnamed individuals within the group to sit down and discuss the near future.
The next significant development in this process will involve two or three groups being named to a shortlist. The Raine Group—together with the Blues’ hierarchy and the UK government—will determine which candidates submitted the most intriguing offers and who would be best to build on Abramovich’s 19 years of excellence at the club. While there is obviously no telling for sure until the names are announced, those familiar with the situation seem to believe there are at least two groups who will advance to the latter stages of the proceedings. Those bidders are the Todd Boehly led-consortium and the Ricketts family. However, the latter is unfit to buy the club.
The Ricketts family is unfit to own Chelsea FC and it’s time fans take their stance
The Ricketts are seen as front runners to take over Chelsea for numerous reasons. First and foremost, they have the financial backing to successfully run a football club. The Ricketts family initially showed interest in buying the Blues on their own, which raised some eyebrows considering they are valued at $5.92 billion (£3.92 billion) by Forbes. Their financial might has only grown stronger in recent weeks though as they’ve teamed up with Citadel LLC CEO Ken Griffin, who is reportedly worth $28.5 billion (£21.49 billion).
The second reason why the Ricketts are seen as a solid option is their ownership of the Chicago Cubs (MLB), one of the United States’ most well-known sports brands. Experience in sports ownership is seen as a crucial quality amongst serious candidates. It doesn’t hurt that there is a title in there recently either. The Cubs won the 2016 World Series under the Ricketts’ ownership.
Before diving any further into the reasons for the aforementioned harsh declaration, it’s important to note that everybody on Earth has done or said something they regret in their life. Nobody is perfect. It’s important to give good people the benefit of the doubt on most occasions, as long as they own up to their actions and face the consequences. But there are some words so heinous and some gestures too unjustifiable to come back from. Joe Ricketts knows all about this concept.
The Nebraskan family patriarch made hateful comments about Muslims via email back in 2012:
"“Christians and Jews can have a mutual respect for each other to create a civil society. As you know, Islam cannot do that. Therefore, we cannot ever let Islam become a large part of our society. Muslims are naturally my (our) enemy due to their deep antagonism and bias against non-Muslims.”"
He later doubled down on these inexcusable remarks during conversations with family members, as well. While Joe Ricketts is said to not be involved with the Chelsea bid, it’s solely the three children, there is simply no place for hatred of any kind at the club. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the commendable work that Laura Ricketts (daughter) does in the LGBTQ+ community. Unfortunately, her father’s comments are simply too indefensible to ignore.
One doesn’t need to look far to see the Blues’ Islamic reach, there are a handful of players in the team (N’Golo Kante, Antonio Rudiger, Malang Sarr and Hakim Ziyech) who openly practice the religion. It goes without saying that Chelsea’s worldwide reach connects the club with millions of Muslim supporters across the globe, as well. Islam is also the second largest religion in the UK as of December 2020 with just shy of 3 million documented followers.
Simply put, there is no place for that kind of spiteful view in football, much less at Chelsea. People can say what they will about Abramovich’s part to play in Russian politics, one thing the oligarch never did during his time as owner of the Blues was discriminate. In fact, the 55-year-old went to great lengths to ensure fans from all walks of life felt at home in west London. The club has been at the forefront of the anti-Semitism and ‘No Room for Racism’ movements for years, as well as other notable causes.
The Blues have created a welcoming culture for all supporters over the years thanks to Abramovich. For this reason, it would be an atrocity to allow the Ricketts family to be deemed fit to run the club as the next owners of Chelsea FC. It would be hypocritical of the UK government to green light the takeover as it’d be cutting off its own nose to spite its face. Part of the reason sports are so great is because of their inclusivity. Football especially has the power to unite people from all kinds of unique backgrounds as they celebrate the clubs in which they love.
The Ricketts family’s entrance into the equation would only serve to set the club back significantly as a large group of players and supporters would be put in an uncomfortable—to say the least—position.
Obviously, everyone has their own opinion about who should be Chelsea’s next owner; these are just my views. If you are of the same opinion, make your voice heard on social media by using “#NoToRicketts” on Twitter until the family is out of the running.