Chelsea could soon face the same major problem Manchester United are still facing after the Glazers’ controversial takeover in 2005, according to Sky Sports’ Kaveh Solhekol.
The sale process has reportedly reached its second stage with the bidders already whittled down to a few groups by the Raine Group.
Based on reports, these prospective bidders will eventually have to pay between £2billion to £3bn for the club, which is to be fair not far from its market value according to Forbes.
The amount of money needed to complete the deal, however, means Chelsea could end up in Manchester United’s situation, Solhelkol argued.
“One thing that would concern me going forward is how much the next owners of Chelsea are going to play for the club,” the Sky Sports chief reporter said about the expected takeover.
“If they’re going to pay £3bn, where is this money coming from? This money is going to be coming from banks.
“The owners are going to be borrowing this money and paying the interest on that money.
“Who is going to be repaying that debt? Are Chelsea going to have to pay for that?
“A similar situation we’ve seen with the Glazers at Manchester United. £3bn is an incredible amount of money.”
The prospective owners’ paying for the club takeover with borrowed money is not necessarily a problem. After all, very few will have £3bn in liquid assets even among the top billionaires.
It becomes one if the debt then is loaded onto the club as the Glazers did when they acquired the majority stake in Manchester United.
According to The Athletic, the Glazers passed on £660m debt to Manchester United 17 years ago, and it still stands at over half a billion even now.
Chelsea owed Roman Abramovich £1.5bn themselves, which the club owner planned to write off despite the potential problems. However, unlike typical debt, the club has never really had to repay the loan, let alone pay any interest.
The Raine Group, who are in charge of filtering the bids in the first place, were hopefully hired to avoid this type of scenario.
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