SPORT: Football
CONOR MCGREGOR has revealed he is serious about trying to buy Chelsea Football Club.

Ear­li­er this week, the MMA super­star tweet­ed he was offer­ing a £1.5billion bid for the West Lon­don outfit.

But the Irish­man has now con­firmed he is def­i­nite­ly inter­est­ed in buy­ing Chelsea from Roman Abramovich.

And he also threw his hat in the ring for future Man­ches­ter Unit­ed and Celtic purchases.

Respond­ing to spec­u­la­tion over whether or not he will try to buy Chelsea, McGre­gor tweet­ed: “I’m not talk­ing in jest. I’m explor­ing this, like I said.

“Der­mot Desmond’s Celtic, Man­ches­ter Unit­ed of the Glaziers, and now Chelsea foot­ball club recent­ly put up for sale. It’s all being explored.

“Buy­ing a foot­ball fran­chise is in my future, make no mis­take about it.”

McGre­gor’s £1.5billion offer is believed to be a way to avoid the £3billion Abramovich is ask­ing for.

How­ev­er, a for­mal offer from the UFC man is seen as much more than he claimed on social media.

Accord­ing to Sky, McGre­gor’s man­age­ment com­pa­ny, Par­a­digm Sports, works close­ly with McGre­gor Sports & Enter­tain­ment and Empow­er­ment IP Cap­i­tal — which is led by sports financier Stephen Duval.

And there are also reports that McGre­gor’s con­sor­tium is in talks with a major glob­al asset man­age­ment firm — which could pro­vide the back­ing need­ed to fund a deal of this magnitude.

It is believed that a num­ber of bid­ders would be inter­est­ed in secur­ing Chelsea from Abramovich.

Mon­ey­ball genius Bil­ly Beane is a busi­ness­man who plans to move for the club as part of a corporation.

Michael Rubin, own­er of sport­ing goods group Fanat­ics, is also expect­ed to be inter­est­ed in apply­ing for the club.

And it was report­ed ear­li­er this week that Todd Boehly, co-own­er of the Los Ange­les Dodgers and LA Lak­ers, was in touch with Swiss bil­lion­aire Han­sjorg Wyss about a poten­tial offer.

Mean­while, reports ear­li­er this week said Abramovich flew on a pri­vate jet to Turkey to poten­tial­ly dis­cuss the sale with Turk­ish bil­lion­aire Muhsin Bayrak.

Bayrak claims he has been locked in nego­ti­a­tions with Abramovich over buy­ing the Pre­mier League club and insists he is ‘in the nego­ti­a­tion phase for signings’.

Mean­while, Sun­Sport have exclu­sive­ly revealed that Abramovich could have bought Arse­nal before buy­ing Chelsea — only to be wrong­ly told the Gun­ners weren’t for sale.