Chelsea’s stadium, Stamford Bridge.
Justin Tallis | Afp | beautiful pictures
Todd Boehly’s conglomerate has signed an agreement to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich.
The proposed deal, announced by the club in a statement in the early hours of Saturday morning, must be approved by the UK Government and the Premier League before it can be finalized. Chelsea said a deal is “expected to be completed by the end of May”.
The group led by part-owner LA Dodgers – which includes backing from Clearlake Capital, a US investment firm – beat out late competition from £4.25 billion bid Sir Jim Ratcliffe and other consortiums led by Stephen Pagliuca and Sir Martin Broughton to win the battle to become the new owners of the Premier League club.
Chelsea have until 31 May to find a new contractor as the UK Government’s license to operate the club expires on that date. With the Raine Group – hired by Abramovich to oversee the sale of the club – having selected its preferred contractor, the government could issue a separate license allowing the Premier League club to be sold.
The Premier League will meet on June 8 to form the new season, at which point Chelsea will need to obtain a license to participate in the next campaign.
Chelsea said in a statement: “Of the total investment made, £2.5 billion will be used to purchase shares of the Club and such proceeds will be deposited into an account. frozen bank of the UK with the intention of giving 100% to charitable causes as confirmed by Roman Abramovich.
“In addition, the proposed new owners will commit to an additional £1.75 billion investment for the benefit of the Club. This includes investments in Stamford Bridge, the Academy, the Women’s Team and Kingsmeadow and continue to fund the Chelsea Foundation.”
Sky Sports News Report in April Boehly’s group has been chosen as the preferred group to buy Chelsea, despite Britain’s richest man Ratcliffe bid £4.25billion for the west London club – although that offer was rejected deny.
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At the end of last month, the Pagliuca Group was informed that it was no longer able to be the Raine Group’s preferred contractor. However, the Broughton group – led by former Liverpool and British Airways chairman Sir Martin, and including Crystal Palace’s billionaire shareholders Dave Blitzer and Josh Harris – is still in the race.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the investors backing Broughton’s bid to buy Chelsea and is said to have committed £10m for the bid. Tennis legend Serena Williams is also one of the supporters of the Broughton Group.
A group of do The Ricketts family, which owns the Chicago Cubs, and billionaire Ken Griffin of hedge fund Citadel, with US investment bank Lazard were in the final four but withdrew the offer in March. The plans failed because the members of the consortium could not agree on completing the final agreement.
Chelsea are expected to have a new owner later this month – almost three months after Russian owner Abramovich, who has been in charge of Stamford Bridge for 19 years, first put the club up for sale on March 2.
The 55-year-old was sanctioned by the UK Government on March 10, with Downing Street claiming to have proven a link between the Russian-Israeli billionaire and Vladimir Putin.
