With Roman Abramovich looking to sell Chelsea after nearly two decades of owning the west London club, plenty of wealthy suitors are casting their eye over the Blues.
90min understands that one person considering a bid for Chelsea is billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who has often been hailed as 'Britain's richest man'.
But who is Ratcliffe, how much is he worth, why would he buy Chelsea and how much for? Here's a profile of the man interested in taking over at Stamford Bridge.
Who is Sir Jim Ratcliffe?
Ratcliffe is the chairman and CEO of Ineos, the fourth largest chemicals company in the world.
He graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in chemical engineering in 1974, before taking a MSc in finance at the London Business School in 1978.
After co-founding chemical company Inspec, Ratcliffe formed Ineos in 1998 and has been in charge ever since.
What is Sir Jim Ratcliffe's net worth?
Ratcliffe's net worth was estimated at $28.2bn (roughly £21.2bn) by Bloomberg Billionaires Index in April 2020, which would make him the 55th richest person in the world.
Does Sir Jim Ratcliffe have experience in football?
Ratcliffe and Ineos currently own two European football clubs.
In 2017, they bought Swiss Super League side FC Lausanne-Sport, before sealing a deal to buy Ligue 1 club Nice two years later.
Ratcliffe has also dipped his toes into the worlds of other sports, too. Ineos is notably the principal partner of Sir Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes AMG Formula 1 team, while Ratcliffe and Sir Ben Ainslie have previously partnered to compete in the America's Cup.
Has Sir Jim Ratcliffe been linked with before Chelsea?
In 2020, Ratcliffe played down talk that he would be submitting a bid to buy Chelsea, insisting he had quite a busy plate in sport already.
"We are very comfortable with where we are with Nice actually," he said at the time.
"It's going quite well, it's been quite interesting, we are still learning and it is quite a challenging league in France with some very talented players."
Why would Sir Jim Ratcliffe buy Chelsea?
While Ratcliffe previously stated that he was not interested in buying Chelsea, circumstances have changed. The club weren't necessarily up for sale in 2020, and the Blues have since re-emerged as a force in English and European football.
If Ratcliffe - or any other billionaire with enough time and spare change on their hands - wanted to buy a top Premier League club, this is a great opening for them. Chelsea are a huge brand in a major city and a history of success.
How much could Sir Jim Ratcliffe buy Chelsea for?
This is where things get tricky.
Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss revealed earlier this week that he and several other billionaires have been offered the chance to buy Chelsea, with Abramovich scrambling to sell his UK assets before the government can impose sanctions on him for his ties to Russia and Vladimir Putin.
Chelsea still owe Abramovich between £1.5bn and £2bn, and Wyss has revealed that the Russian's current asking price is too high - if the Swiss is to buy the Blues, then he has stated it would be in a consortium with six or seven other investors.
The Telegraph write that Abramovich is looking to sell the club for around £4bn but could only receive bids of half that total.
Any person or group looking to buy Chelsea may have to pay more than anyone ever has for a football club - the Glazers' bid to purchase a controlling stake in Manchester United for £790m is currently the most expensive acquisition in the history of the sport.
Source : 90min