According to reports in Italy, Elliott Management – who own Milan – will help finance Nick Candy’s bid to purchase Chelsea, but there won’t be a conflict of interest.
Chelsea have been put up for sale by Roman Abramovich after he was hit by UK sanctions against Russian oligarchs as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.
The assets have been frozen, meaning the club cannot even sell tickets or merchandise for the rest of the season.
Candy is the favourite to win the bidding war, with Sky News and Calcio e Finanza reporting that Elliott Management will help finance the proposal.
Elliott are a hedge fund based in the United States and have been in charge of Milan since 2018, when essentially repossessing the club because previous owner Yonghong Li failed to keep up loan repayments to them.
There would be no conflict of interest if the bid were to be successful, because Elliott would purely be financing the move, not purchasing shares for themselves, or at least not enough shares to raise an issue with UEFA.
It is nonetheless possible the two clubs could do transfer deals and have something of a preferential route on the market.