American billionaire Josh Harris 'is considering bidding for Chelsea'

Josh Harris, who has stakes in the NBA, NHL and Premier League side Crystal Palace, is reportedly targeting an audacious move to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich.

The Financial Times report that the American billionaire, 57, is looking into whether he can put together a deal to buy the wantaway Russian owner out.

Harris is one of a number of billionaires to have been linked with the Stamford Bridge club since Abramovich announced his intentions to sell up.

Fellow NBA owner Vivek Ranadive, who owns the Sacremento Kings, is among the pool of reported bids, LA Dodgers stakeholder Todd Boehly and Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss are said to be leading a consortium while Turkish billionaire Muhsin Bayrak has claimed he is in talks to buy the club.

There are also reports that New York Jets owner Woody Johnson will table a bid, too.

One complication for Harris, who is estimated to have a personal fortune of more than $7.5billion, is that he would need to relinquish his stake in Crystal Palace in order to progress any potential deal to purchase Chelsea.

Harris invested an initial £50million with David Blitzer in 2015 into Palace following the pair's meeting with Eagles chairman Steve Parish.

Russian billionaire Abramovich has put up an asking price of £3billion on the club that he has helped turn into one of Europe's biggest forces in the game since taking control in 2003.

Sportsmail reported last week that a source close to Abramovich expressed scepticism about all the bidders who have publicly revealed their hands to date, including the Swiss/American partnership of Wyss and Boehly.

The FT report states that Harris is unsure whether to push on and make a bid for Chelsea.

Should he decide he does want to purchase the team, he would likely do so alongside Blitzer once more through his company Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.

Bloomberg News reported recently that Harris is also looking into expanding his sports portfolio with NFL franchise Denver Broncos.

Estimates in the US believe that the Broncos could sell for as much as $4billion, an NFL record.

Harris has not commented on record about the Broncos reports but all signs point to the 76ers owner expanding his portfolio in the near future.

Where it pertains to Chelsea, Abramovich is focused on leaving the club, the current champions of European football, in safe hands.

Abramovich is understood to regard the buyer's plans for the future of the club as equally significant as the price in determining whether to sanction a sale, a factor not to be overlooked as other potential bidders emerged yesterday.

Abramovich is deeply concerned by his image and legacy at Chelsea, as has been made evident by the number of carefully choreographed statements released on his behalf over the last week.

The Russian's main sales adviser, Joe Ravitch, insisted last week that the sale would not be fast-tracked despite fears of Government sanctions.

The conflict in Ukraine has raised questions in UK parliament about potentially imposing sanctions on the Russian and as a result, Abramovich is offloading all of his London assets before the British government can penalise him, including Chelsea.

As MailOnline reported on Monday, Abramovich may face sanctions before he is able to complete the sale of Chelsea  after the Government announced it could target 'hundreds' of wealthy Russians in the UK as early as next Tuesday.

The Raine Group, an American merchant bank, have set a deadline of March 15 for potential buyers to submit their bids.

Abramovich is to write off the £1.5bn debt owed to him by Chelsea.

Net proceeds from the sale are to be donated to the war victims of the current crisis in Ukraine.