In the absence of the final talks to close the purchase, Todd Boehly will be the new owner of Chelsea FC. As Diario AS has learned, the American businessman is the chosen candidate to take over the English team. This has been decided by the Raine Group, the New York bank that has managed the sale process together with the Chelsea board and the British government.
In this way, Boehly will become the successor of Roman Abramovich, who was sanctioned by Downing Street on March 10 and who will not receive any type of benefit from the sale of the club (all the money obtained will be donated to the victims of the conflict in Ukraine). Despite having his assets frozen, the Russian tycoon has participated in the selection process.
This Friday, the The Raine Group ruled out proposals from the other candidates, who were Sir Jim Ratcliffe (owner of Ineos), Sir Martin Broughton (former Liverpool chairman) and Stephen Pagliuca (owner of Atalanta and Boston Celtics). The three applicants bet heavily on Chelsea, but their offers did not convince the jury, which has opted for Boehly, who will invest more than 4,000 million euros to buy the club and renew its assets.
The American billionaire is an “old acquaintance” for the blue hobby. His fortune is valued at 6,000 million euros, he participated in the acquisition of the LA Dodgers and already tried to buy the club from Abramovich in 2018 for more than 2,500 million euros, but his offer was rejected.
Four years later, he is close to achieving his goal. after launching himself again for Chelsea at the hands of the Swiss Hanjborg Wyss -with more than 4,000 million euros of capital-, the British businessman Jonathan Goldstein, and Clearlake Capital, a Californian investment fund with assets worth 70,000 million of euros.
Among the four definitive applicants, the proposal of the Swiss-American consortium was the strongest financially and has worked on it well in advance. In fact, Boehly met some time ago with the “senior” members of Chelsea to discuss the main lines of the new project, like the mega reform of Stamford Bridge.