Sir Jim Ratcliffe will have to increase his bid to buy Chelsea if he wants to convince owner Roman Abramovich to enter into negotiations with the British billionaire after Todd Boehly was named the preferred bidder by Raine Group.

Boehly’s party will now enter exclusive negotiations with Abramovich and Chelsea and have a week to finalize a deal for the club and if that fails Ratcliffe could be considered.

However, according to Sky News, Ratcliffe must table a “significantly higher offer” to persuade Abramovich to start negotiations.

“We made an offer (Friday) morning”, Ratcliffe has said of his £4.25billion bid, as cited by Athletic. “We are the only British bid. Our motivations are simply to try to create a very nice club in London.

“We don’t have any profit because we make our money in other ways.”

Boehly’s consortium has since been revealed to be offering more than the £4.25billion offered by Ratcliffe and Ineos, meaning the British billionaire would have to up his offer if he wants to convince Chelsea’s hierarchy to listen his offer.

With the Premier League ‘advanced’ in their scrutiny of the Boehly consortium as part of their test of owners and directors, it looks like Ratcliffe will fail with their late bid unless they find a way to convince Abramovich and co to take its offer more seriously than a deal Boehly reached after months of planning and meeting with fan groups and those involved in the offer.

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