A consortium led by the part-owner of a professional baseball team in Los Angeles has completed its purchase of English soccer club Chelsea from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
The team confirmed on May 30 that the sale was finalized.
Completion of the 2.5 billion pound ($3.2 billion) deal -- the highest price ever paid for a sports team -- follows a final agreement reached on May 28.
Abramovich was forced to sell the London club after being sanctioned by the British government for what it called his enabling of Russian President Vladimir Putin's “brutal and barbaric invasion” of Ukraine.
Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly said the consortium is “honored to become the new custodians of Chelsea Football Club. We’re all in -- 100 percent -- every minute of every match.”
Boehly’s group has pledged to invest an additional 1.75 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) in Chelsea's academy teams and on infrastructure.
The consortium includes the principal owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mark Walter; Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss; and funding from private equity firm Clearlake.
The consortium won the bid to acquire the team earlier this month. Its bid was approved by the Premier League and the British government last week after the government ensured that Abramovich could not profit from it.
Chelsea has been operating under a government license since Abramovich’s assets were frozen in March. The proceeds of the sale will be used for humanitarian purposes and the rebuilding effort in Ukraine, government said.
“Today’s change of ownership marks a new chapter for Chelsea," the government said, adding that it was “in the best interests of its fans, the club, and the wider football community.”
Chelsea’s statement said the process of selling the team “was extremely thorough” and stressed that it was completed on an accelerated timeline.
“Many described the proposed transaction as ‘unprecedented,' and it was,” the statement said. “A transaction such as this would normally take nine months to a year to complete; we did it in less than three months.”
During Abramovich's ownership, Chelsea won 21 trophies, including the Champions League in 2012 and 2021, and it is the reigning Club World Cup champion. The women’s team won a league-and-cup double this season.