The Eldridge Industries investment company, belonging to US businessman Todd Boehly, and Clearlake Capital have officially become new owners of the English football club Chelsea. The transaction was rubber-stamped after it was approved by all regulators, including the UK Premier League and the British government.
According to the AP, the FC was sold to the new owners for $3.2 billion.
"We are honoured to become the new custodians of Chelsea Football Club. We're all in, 100 percent, every minute of every match", Boehly said in the official statement.
Boehly and Clearlake both pledged to invest in the club in a bid to boost its competitiveness. They namely plan to make improvements to the FC's home stadium of Stamford Bridge, invest in the club's academy and its women's team, as well as in the Kingsmeadow stadium used by the Chelsea Women and Chelsea U23s teams.
The deal's closure came just a day before a special government licence, under which the FC was operating in recent months, would have expired. The club's previous owner, Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, who bought it 19 years ago, transferred the club's "stewardship and care" to the Chelsea Charitable Foundation on February 26 2022, as he faced threats of sanctions over his alleged ties to the Russian government.
The sanctions would have limited Abramovich's ability to financially sustain the operations of Chelsea FC, putting the club's future into doubt. The UK government agreed to allow the transaction, but only if it were football-related. Abramovich announced that he will be selling the club early in March in order to enable it to have a future without fears of sanctions against its owner.