The fast-tracked purchase of English soccer club Chelsea for 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion)—the highest price ever paid for a sports team—was completed Monday by a consortium fronted by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly.
It marked the end of the trophy-filled, 19-year tenure of Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch who was forced to sell the club in March 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.
The government said the proceeds of the sale will be used for humanitarian purposes in Ukraine.
“We are honored to become the new custodians of Chelsea Football Club,” said Boehly, who attended some of the team’s games in recent weeks. “We’re all in—100 percent—every minute of every match.”…