Snak

Story updated following a late flurry of confirmed bids. Boehly, Ricketts-Griffin, Coe-Broughton, Candy all now known to have made official offers to buy Chelsea with the deadline passed


That means that a couple of the bids we heard a bit about – the Saudi Media offer for example – are still unconfirmed – although we expect plenty more to come into the open in the next 24 hours.

Things will likely go quiet until at least Monday now – but given how quickly things will go on the sale, nothing can be ruled out.

Goldman Sachs, the powerful Wall Street investment bank, has stormed into the £3bn auction of Chelsea Football Club as an adviser to one of the leading bidders.

Sky News has learnt that Goldman has been signed up to advise the consortium being led by Todd Boehly, one of the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.

The addition of Goldman to Mr Boehly´s bid is understood to have been disclosed in an offer letter sent to Raine, the merchant bank overseeing Chelsea´s sale, on Friday.

While Goldman´s involvement is limited at this stage to an advisory rather than financing role, its decision to work with Mr Boehly underlines its apparent status as one of the frontrunners to succeed Roman Abramovich as the Blues´ owner.

Raine is expected to whittle down dozens of preliminary offers to fewer than a handful in the next few days, leading to more serious and detailed negotiations with the remaining contenders.

Sources said the bid led by Mr Boehly was now "overfunded", meaning that it, like a number of Chelsea´s other prospective buyers, have secured more capital than they are likely to require to buy the club.

A source close to the group said its offer could be implemented rapidly and that the required capital was ready to be deployed immediately, paving the way for a rapid change of ownership at Stamford Bridge.

Mr Boehly´s consortium would provide long-term funding for Chelsea, including the redevelopment of its Stamford Bridge home, its academy and its women´s team, the source added.

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