Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss claims he has been approached to buy Chelsea

Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss has claimed he has been offered the chance to join a £2bn consortium with 'six or seven' other investors to buy Chelsea.

The 86-year-old, worth a reported £4.3bn, has admitted interest in purchasing the Stamford Bridge club from Roman Abramovich, but only in a consortium.

Russian-Israeli billionaire Abramovich has publicly expressed his desire to retain ownership of Chelsea, but that could prove close to impossible should the UK Government impose sanctions on the 55-year-old.

Wyss has admitted he will look into the details of any possible deal to buy Chelsea, with the asking price thought to push beyond £2billion.

'Abramovich is trying to sell all his villas in England, he also wants to get rid of Chelsea quickly,' Wyss told Swiss newspaper Blick.

'I and three other people received an offer on Tuesday to buy Chelsea from Abramovich.

'I have to wait four to five days now. Abramovich is currently asking far too much. You know, Chelsea owe him £2 billion. But Chelsea has no money. As of today, we don't know the exact selling price.'

Abramovich attempted to step back from the daily running of Chelsea on Saturday, in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Blues boss has tried to hand the 'stewardship and care' of Chelsea to the club's charitable foundation trustees.

That led the Charity Commission to contact the Stamford Bridge club for more detail on Abramovich's plans, after several of the trustees raised concerns over technicalities.

Labour MP Chris Bryant has called for the UK Government to impose sanctions on Abramovich after a number of Russian oligarchs have already fallen under such penalties.

Abramovich is understood to have attempted to hand control of Chelsea to the foundation trustees in a bid to protect the club.

The Chelsea owner would not receive any protection from sanctions through stepping away from daily control at Stamford Bridge.

Abramovich's spokesperson said on Monday that the Russian-Israeli businessman was attempting to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Swiss billionaire Wyss, who founded medical device firm Synthes USA, insisted he could only consider a deal for Chelsea with a clutch of investment partners.

'I can well imagine starting at Chelsea with partners,' said Wyss. 'But I have to examine the general conditions first. But what I can already say: I'm definitely not doing something like this alone.

'If I buy Chelsea, then with a consortium consisting of six to seven investors.'

Elsewhere, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel snapped on Tuesday as scrutiny intensified over Abramovich's ownership of Chelsea, with the manager insisting: 'You have to stop asking me these questions. I have no answers'.

Tuchel fielded several questions on the ownership ahead of Wednesday night's FA Cup trip to Luton before eventually saying: 'Listen, listen, listen you have to stop, I'm not a politician.

'You have to stop, honestly, I can only repeat it and I feel bad to repeat it because I've never experienced war.

'So even to talk about it I feel bad because I'm very privileged – I sit here in peace. I do the best I can but you have to stop asking me these questions because I have no answers for you.'

A clearly frustrated Tuchel then slapped the table after being asked for his opinion on the conflict and Abramovich's current status as owner of Chelsea.

Tuchel earlier said his side 'are calm at the centre of a storm... which we cannot control and are not responsible for'.

The German insisted the best he and his players can do is to 'focus on what we love and do' - as they did against Liverpool in Sunday's Carabao Cup final.

'I think we have a right to focus on sports,' he said.

'Everyone is aware of more important things and the situation is Ukraine is by far more important. We still arrived with two strong teams to play a fantastic match. We arrived still to entertain the fans with a match of maximum effort and entertainment. I don't know what we could do different.'