A European club sold for more than 5 billion dollars

Chelsea announced on Friday evening that it had agreed to the terms of the sale of the club to a consortium led by Todd Boehly, co-owner of the LA Dodgers baseball team, for 4.25 billion pounds ($5.2 billion). ).

In a statement, the Blues say the new owners will pay £2.5bn for the club’s shares, saying the proceeds from the sale will be paid into a frozen bank account and will be donated to charity.

The consortium is led by Boehly, but Clearlake Capital, a California-based private equity firm, will own the majority of the club’s shares. Other investors include US billionaire Mark Walter, also co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss.

The consortium has clarified that it will provide £1.75bn to invest in the Premier League club, including “investments in Stamford Bridge, the academy, the women’s team and Kingsmeadow and continued funding for the Foundation Chelsea”.

Chelsea noted that the sale should be finalized at the end of May, while the acquisition will have to be approved by the English football authorities and the British government.

Since the sanctions imposed on the club’s Russian owner, Roman Abramovich, Chelsea have been operating under a special license from the British government which ends on May 31. The sale can only be completed if the bidder passes the Premier League owners and managers test.

The fortune of American businessman Todd Boehly is estimated at 4.5 billion dollars (3.6 billion pounds), according to Forbes. He is the co-owner of the Dodgers, an American baseball franchise, and the Los Angeles Sparks, an American women’s basketball team. He also owns a stake in the famous LA Lakers NBA franchise.