No indication yet of winning bid for Chelsea Football Club — reports

Hopeful reports intimated that we might find out perhaps as early as Monday who the preferred winners are from the three final bidding groups for Chelsea Football club. It’s now Wednesday, so obviously that did not happen. And it might not happen for a bit longer, with no “steadfast” deadline set in what remains an accelerated process yet one still not as fast as we would truly like — if the club were allowed to operate normally in the meantime, this wouldn’t be a problem. But we are not, so it is.

Chelsea and Raine Group are trying to do as much due diligence as they possibly can, and all three groups remain in the running with “strong” offers. As per the Telegraph and CBS Sports, all the groups were contacted over the weekend to provide additional details and clarifications on their bids, be that questions on the stadium, the Academy, the bid financing, or whatever else.

There appear to be no major showstoppers for any of the bidding groups, including any potential conflicts of interest. The Broughton bid’s financiers, Harris and Blitzer could divest quickly from Crystal Palace if needed while the Pagliuca bid’s playing into the Atalanta relationship rather than moving away from it, so presumably they feel this is acceptable for UEFA. The Boehly bid still seems the strongest, and apparently have the “most concrete and expansive” stadium plans as well.

And so, we wait.