The Raine Group are favouring a bid backed by the Chicago Cubs-owning Ricketts family and Ken Griffin to buy Chelsea.
The New York bank firm have been placed in charge of the sale of the Stamford Bridge club, and have narrowed the bidding process down to four final parties.
Still left in the running to buy the Blues are Todd Boehly's consortium, Sir Martin Broughton, Stephen Pagliuca and the Ricketts/Griffin bid.
But The Athletic report that those close to rivals bids believe that Raine are leaning towards a sale to the latter. It's theorised that the Ricketts' prior experience in top-level sport and readiness to step into Roman Abramovich's shoes in west London has them leading the race.
A section of Chelsea fans have voiced their concerns over the bid due to racist comments made by 80-year-old Joe Ricketts, the oldest member of the family, in a series of leaked emails between 2009 and 2014.
The rest of the family moved to distance themselves from Joe, who also released a statement apologising for the comments.
The Chelsea Supporters Trust met with representatives of the Ricketts family recently to address this issue, though claim that the American group needed to do more to regarding inclusivity issues.
"It is for the Ricketts family to demonstrate how they will address supporter concerns - especially concerning inclusivity, given both past and recent statements by members of the family, and they have not yet done that," the CST said.
"They must do so publicly and they must do so urgently. If they are unable to do this and gain the confidence of Chelsea supporters, the CST board does not believe it would be in the best interests of our members and Chelsea supporters for their bid to succeed."
Source : 90min