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Ricketts pull out of Chelsea race

The Ricketts family, the owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, have withdrawn their bid for Chelsea. Some Chelsea fans had opposed the bid because of leaked Islamophobic comments made by Joe Ricketts.

Sources close to the Ricketts insist that fan protests had nothing to do with their decision.  It was because of a failure to agree the structure of the deal with American investors Ken Griffin and Dan Gilbert.

The Ricketts bid was seen as a strong one if only because of the amount of money behind it.

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire says that as time goes on it is an increasing concern how the wage bill will be paid: https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2022/04/15/inside-the-last-days-of-abramovichs-reign-at-chelsea-fc/?sh=4a8daf8072f0

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