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Lewis Hamilton and Serena Williams enter Chelsea bidding war
Serena Williams and Lewis Hamilton at the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix
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The London football club Chelsea FC is for sale. A group of investors bidding for the club has now won Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton and tennis icon Serena Williams as partners – this increases the chances.
The British football club FC Chelsea is for sale – and now has two prominent prospective buyers. Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton and tennis icon Serena Williams are part of a consortium bidding for the London football club. Hamilton’s management confirmed the involvement of the racing driver of the German Press Agency.
The consortium is led by British multi-millionaire Sir Martin Broughton, who briefly served as Liverpool FC chairman years ago but is said to be a Chelsea FC supporter in private. The British broadcaster Sky had previously reported on Hamilton’s and Williams’ commitment.
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Hamilton and Williams are said to increase the chances of buying
Accordingly, the two sports stars should each enter the business with around ten million British pounds. Given the estimated purchase price of £2.5 billion, that doesn’t seem like much. The involvement of Hamilton and Williams is certainly primarily intended to improve the consortium’s chances. Both Hamilton and Williams stand with their names for successful top-class sport, for international diversity and cosmopolitanism, which definitely plays a role in sales.
In addition to the consortium, two other bidders are in the running. On the one hand there is the group around Todd Boehly. The US entrepreneur already co-owns the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team and has teamed up with British real estate investor Jonathan Goldstein to buy Chelsea. The two are supported by the US investment company Clearlake Capital. The third bidder is the group around US investor Stephen Pagliuca. He is the owner of the Boston Celtics basketball team and has a 55 percent stake in Serie A club Atalanta Bergamo.
Abramovich had to put Chelsea up for sale
In addition to Hamilton and Williams, the Broughton consortium also won the British Olympic champion Sebastian Coe, President of the World Athletics Federation. US billionaires Josh Harris and David Blitzer are also among them. Both are co-owners of the NBA team Philadelphia 76ers. Blitzer also has a stake in the German soccer club FC Augsburg through its Bolt Football Holdings.
Chelsea’s previous owner, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, had put the club up for sale before being hit with harsh sanctions by the UK government over its alleged closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The sanctions also hit Chelsea.
Sources: “Sky News”, “Sports Show”
