The UK government is finally ready to sanction the sale of Chelsea football club to the Todd Boehly-led consortium.
The sale of the Premier League club has already been completed but hit a snag as the UK government demanded further assurances from former owner Roman Abramovic.
The Russian had put the club up for sale in March following his country’s invasion of Ukraine but the British government demanded assurances that Abramovich, who was sanctioned following the invasion will not benefit in any way from the sale of Chelsea football club.
Abramovich has now provided legally binding guarantees that a £1.6bn loan to the club will not go to the Russian oligarch or his family after the Chelsea sale goes through.
This would allow the money to go into a frozen account which will be under the government’s control.
The London club had announced the 4.25 billion pound ($5.2 billion) deal with Boehly’s consortium for the sale of the reigning European champions earlier this month which remained subject to receiving the required approvals.
The Premier League’s approval for the deal is imminent with Boehly’s consortium understood to have passed the league’s owners and directors test.
The UK government’s approval of the sale was being finalized on Monday but the deal also faces the need for EU approval as Abramovich holds a Portuguese passport.
It is understood that because of Roman Abramovich’s Portuguese passport the takeover needs to be licensed by authorities in that country too.
The government has already issued a special license for Chelsea to continue to operate which expires on 31 May.
