Stamford Bridge is changing hands. In the early hours of Saturday, Chelsea F. C. announced that it had signed an agreement with Todd Boehly’s consortium, who would purchase the club from Roman Abramovich. The deal has to get approval from the British Government as well as the Premier League. The football club said that the deal is expected to be completed by the end of May.
Chelsea was put up for sale by owner Roman Abramovich on March 2, just before he was sanctioned by various Western governments and by the U.K. government on March 10, for having links with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. He wanted to sell the club so that it could continue to be a part of the Premier League. The club was wooed by several buyers and the agreement has been finalized in favor of a group that includes the part owner of the LA Dodgers.
The group is lead by Todd Boehly, who was a former Guggenheim President and Clearlake Capital, a U.S. investment firm. The group has agreed to buy Chelsea for £4.25 billion which is approximately $5.25 billion. The deal signals a deepening of U.S. interests in the English Premier League. It also ends the almost two decade long tenure of Russian-Israeli Roman Abramovich who invested a lot in the club and brought it back to the top of the league.
The deal was made by the Raine Group which is based in New York. Four of the top bids were financed partly by people from the U.S. There were other bidders from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey. After the partly American owned consortium won the bid, it became the 10th American group to partly of fully back a team in the EPL.
Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea F.C. in 2003. He helped develop the club into a premier one in Europe. The club won more than 20 trophies under his patronage. Last season, it won the prestigious European Champions League title.
