- LA Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly leads the group that set to buy Chelsea FC, the team announced Friday.
- Chelsea has been owned for nearly 20 years by Roman Abramovich, who helped transform the team.
- The $5 billion deal marks the biggest sports team sale in history, The Wall Street Journal reported.
A group led by American billionaire Todd Boehly is set to buy the Premier League soccer team Chelsea FC in a more than $5.2 billion deal, the team announced Friday.
The team has been owned for nearly two decades by Roman Abramovich, a billionaire Russian oligarch who was sanctioned by the UK in March after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 for $233 million and helped transform the London-based team into one of the world's best soccer clubs. He put the team up for sale in March as oligarchs began getting hit with sanctions.
The team said in a statement the new ownership group would be led by Boehly, who owns stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Los Angeles Sparks. The group also includes investment firm Clearlake Capital, controlling Dodgers owner Mark Walter, and Hansjoerg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire.
The club said more than $3 billion from the sale would be deposited into a frozen UK bank account and would be donated to charitable causes, with the rest going towards investment in the club.
It's the most money ever paid for a professional sports team, according to The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report the sale.
The UK government has worked to ensure Abramovich won't profit from the sale, the outlet reported.