Prospective Chelsea owner, Tom Ricketts reacted to the protest by Chelsea fans against his bid to buy the Stamford Bridge outfit.
Tom, leader of the billionaire family, again promised to put ‘diversity and inclusion at the heart of the club’ should the takeover bid fronted by his family be successful.
During the Blues game against Brentford on Saturday, hundreds of the club’s supporters staged a protest.
The supporters are against the Ricketts family being named as the new owners of the club as the #NoToRicketts campaign gathered significant momentum.
The protest is major because of their father Joe Ricketts’ historic Islamophobic comments which Tom and Laura Ricketts have been working hard to erase and build links with Chicago’s Muslim community after Joe’s comments in 2019.
Brother, Pete Ricketts has been linked to anti-LGBTQ sentiment but is not involved in the Chelsea bid.
The reason released a statement in response to the protest, saying, “Over the past fortnight, our bid team has met with several supporter groups to explain our vision for Chelsea Football Club.
“In those meetings, and by letter to all groups, we have shared a set of specific commitments we will make to fans if our bid is successful.
“We believe these are far-reaching and certainly include an absolute commitment on the part of the Ricketts Family and the bid team to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of the club.”
The Ricketts family said there would be more such meetings including with the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust.
Reports emerged during the week that the Ricketts family are now right in front of the queue to buy the club from Roman Abramovich.
Rival bidding groups earlier in the week kicked against US merchant bank Raine Group’s alleged preferential treatment towards the Ricketts family.
The rival bidding groups fear the owners of the Chicago Cubs are now the preferred choice of Raine to buy the Stamford Bridge outfit.
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