Lord Coe, Gianluca Vialli get involved in prospective long-shot Chelsea bids — reports

Olympic gold medalist, former politician, FIFA watchdog, IAAF President, and so on and so forth, Lord Sebastian Coe has “joined” the prospective bid of Sir Martin Broughton, his fellow lifelong Chelsea fan.

Broughton, the former short-term Liverpool chairman tasked with their ownership transition back in 2010 has been exploring a bid, either on his own or as part of a consortium, and Lord Coe is the first confirmed name to join him. Coe had served on the Chelsea Foundation’s board as well some years back, and has been one of the more high-profile Chelsea fans in England, even writing a few columns for the official website.

This is certainly a move more for clout than actual financial backing, but a successful bid will likely need both.

“I am certain that Sir Martin is the right man to lead Chelsea Football Club into its next chapter. He has an exceptional track record in British business, as well as unrivalled experience in shepherding Liverpool out of a very difficult situation. He has the vision, acumen and financial backing to ensure our club’s future success, keeping Chelsea Football Club at the top of European football and challenging for trophies.

“But most importantly, like me, he is a lifelong Chelsea supporter and Shed End season-ticket holder. I know that this bid is for the millions of Chelsea fans around the world. We love our club and will always put the fans first.”

-Lord Coe; source: PA via Independent

Prospective bidders have less than 36 hours to scrape together a reasonable amount of cash, say £2b, with Raine Group making it clear that all financial ducks need to be accounted for an in a row in order to be chosen as their “preferred bidder”. We’re looking to close the transaction as quickly as humanly and procedurally possible once the decision is made and there is no time for any shenanigans or funny accounting.

That might be problem for Broughton & Coe (& Co?), just as it seems to be a problem for another Chelsea fan, Nick Candy, who keeps talking a good game, but so far has only managed to get Gianluca Vialli (and a company he co-founded, more pertinently) to join his bidding team.

We all love Luca, but he probably ain’t gonna conjure up the billions needed, even if he is involved with the financiers of Tifosy Capital, who apparently have worked on similar transactions before (in an unspecified capacity).

Last and certainly least, we should mention this story, which is probably a joke, but you never really know these days.

Turns out it was Agathamovich all along. Roman, you sly dog.