British billionaire Nick Candy plans Chelsea takeover bid

Candy is currently trying to form a consortium with a number of investors in order to put in a formal big for the club.

Current owner Roman Abramovich put Chelsea up for sale last week amid the controversy surrounding his native country Russia's invasion of neighbours Ukraine.

As part of the bid Candy has pledged to push forward with plans to rebuild Stamford Bridge, and believes his background as a property developer leaves him as the perfect fit for where the club currently find themselves.

There are said to be 20 credible interested parties in Chelsea, with US-based Raine Group asigned the role of assessing the bids before the final deadline on 15 March.

"Nick Candy is actively exploring a number of options for a potential bid for Chelsea," his spokesperson said in a statement.

"Any bid would be made in conjunction with another party, or consortium, and we have serious interest from several international partners.

"Mr Candy has a huge affinity with Chelsea. His father was asked to play for the club and he has been watching matches at Stamford Bridge since the age of four." Chelsea announced plans for a new 60,000-seater stadium on the Stamford Bridge site in 2015 but the project was put on hold indefinitely three years later.

"The club deserves a world-class stadium and infrastructure and Mr Candy's unique expertise and background in real estate would be a hugely valuable asset to delivering this vision," the statement concluded.

Abramovich's first major statement after the Russian invasion was to declare that he intended to give "stewardship and care" of the Blus to its foundation trustees, but has since decided to sell club completely, having been threatened heavily with sanctions.

The billionaire has denied close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.