Chelsea sale: LA Dodgers' Todd Boehly set to complete takeover of Premier League club after consortium deal is agreed

Chelsea have agreed terms to sell the club to a consortium led by Todd Boehly, the co-owner of the LA Dodgers baseball team. The £4.25bn deal, which will require approval from the English football authorities and the UK government, is expected to be completed in late May. Ad/> The sale can only be signed off once the bidder has passed the Premier League's owners' and directors' test.

Premier LeagueAbramovich denies hiking asking price of Chelsea and for £1.5 billion loan to be repaidYESTERDAY AT 17:20 A statement from Chelsea, published at 1:37am UK time on Saturday, said that the new owners will pay £2.5bn for the club's shares and the proceeds will go into a frozen bank account to be donated to charity. Boehly is also part-owner of the Dodgers, US women's basketball team the Los Angeles Sparks, and owns a stake of NBA franchise LA Lakers. But the majority of the shares will be owned by Clearlake Capital, a Californian private equity firm.

Other investors include US billionaire Mark Walter, also co-owner of LA Dodgers, and Swiss billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss. The consortium beat off late competition from £4.25bn bidder Sir Jim Ratcliffe and other bids led by Stephen Pagliuca and Sir Martin Broughton. The consortium say they will invest £1.75bn into the club which will go towards «Stamford Bridge, the academy, the women's team and Kingsmeadow and continued funding for the Chelsea foundation».