Chelsea being sold for $3B to L.A. Dodgers owners, investors

LONDON — Chelsea will be sold to a consortium fronted by Los Angeles Dodgers partowner Todd Boehly, ending 19 years of ownership and lavish investment by Roman Abramovich until the Russian oligarch was sanctioned and forced to offload the English

Premier League club over the war in Ukraine.

The sale price of 2.5 billion pounds ($3.1 billion) for the reigning Club World Cup winner and 2021 European champion is the most lucrative ever for a sports team worldwide but Abramovich cannot receive the proceeds, which he hopes will go to a foundation for the victims of the war.

A further 1.75 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) has been committed to invest in Chelsea’s teams and stadiums after two months of rapid negotiations to sell the west London club since Russia invaded Ukraine.

After several rival bids were rejected, Chelsea said on Saturday that buyout terms were agreed with a consortium that features Boehly along with Dodgers principal owner Mark Walter, Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss and funding from private equity firm Clearlake Capital.

The Premier League must approve them as the new ownership and the government has to sign off under the terms of the license that allows Chelsea to continue operating as a business through May 31 while being one of Abramovich’s frozen assets.

Abramovich has said he would write off loans of more than 1.5 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) to Chelsea but that has been complicated by the sanctions put in place by the British government as part of a crackdown on wealthy Russians with ties to President Vladimir Putin. Abramovich’s side positioned him as a potential peacemaker but that trail has gone silent publicly in recent weeks.