The Premier League has approved the £4.25billion takeover deal of Chelsea Football Club after Todd Boehly’s consortium passed the Premier League owner’s and directors’ test.
Todd Boehly, co-owner of LA Doggers, leads the consortium that finally won the bid to acquire the West London club after it was put on sale by Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich before he was sanctioned in the UK.
Abramovich, who is under severe sanction following his ties with President Vladimir Putin, had put the club on sale before the government sanctioned him and froze his assets in the United Kingdom.
Although Chelsea was affected, the government issued a provisional licence to provide leverage for the club to operate until May 31 when all leagues must have ended.
However, following the recent approval granted by the Premier League to the consortium, the UK government will have to rectify the process to issue the club another operational licence before the start of 2022-2023 draws in June.
Recently, the UK government accused Roman Abramovich of seeking to benefit from the proceeds of the deal which the Russian billionaire denied.
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Before the UK government’s accusations, Abramovich directed that the £1.5billion he loaned the club should be given to charity; a benevolent contribution to Ukrainians who are victims of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.
According to an inside source as BBC Sports reported, the deal which is subject to the UK government’s approval still has some technicalities that need to be sorted out.
The source added that hopefully on Tuesday, all issues regarding the full acquisition of the club by Todd Boehly consortium would have been finalised.
“We now believe everyone will be ready to issue the necessary licences,” the inside source told BBC Sports.
“The last remaining hurdle boils down to a number of final technical details that are being discussed with the club,” the source added.
More details about the Todd Boehly consortium reveal that Clearlake Capital, a Californian private equity firm, would own a majority of the shares in Chelsea. Other investors include US billionaire Mark Walter, also a co-owner of the LA Dodgers, and Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss.