Chelsea have agreed terms on the £4.25bn ($5.2bn) sale of the club to a consortium led by Todd Boehly, co-owner of the LA Dodgers baseball team.
This was a saga that had run on longer than it should have ever since the current Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich put the club up for sale back in March but has now finally concluded.
The Russian oligarch took over the club in 2003 and led the Blues to incredible success over the course of his 19 years overseeing the club, but decided to sell up after being sanctioned for his alleged links to Russian President Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine.
Now the torch is being passed to a consortium led by Boehly but Clearlake Capital, a Californian private equity firm, would own a majority of the shares in Chelsea reports the BBC. Other investors include US billionaire Mark Walter, also a co-owner of the LA Dodgers, and Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss.
The consortium said it will provide £1.75billion 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 Chelsea Foundation”.
This will be a big relief to everyone associated with Chelsea as the atmosphere around the Blues hasn’t been great over the last few weeks, especially within the playing squad.
Thomas Tuchel’s side have seen a massive dip in form recently and the Chelsea boss admitted that the uncertainty over the club’s future played a role in that, stating via the Daily Mail:
“It surely affects the team but I cannot tell you to which degree. The longer the situation goes [on], now it has a huge affect because Toni leaves us in the middle of the process where we are sanctioned and could not even fight, could not do another offer, could not be in negotiations.
“We try to minimise the influence, I think it’s important to accept it and not use it as an excuse, so if there’s a certain degree of distraction, a certain degree of uncertainty, okay we accept it but there is still another 100 per cent to reach and this is still our level.”
The news is perfect timing for the club as the FA Cup final is just around the corner, in which Tuchel’s side face Liverpool on May 14th.
Although the deal looks set to be complete, any sale can only be signed off by the bidder passing the Premier League’s owners’ and directors’ test so there is still one more step to go.
It does look good, however, for the Blues and the London club can now move on from what has been a turbulent few weeks for the club.
that is a good news us the blue