The £4.25billion sale of Chelsea to a US consortium led by tycoon Todd Boehly is expected to be approved by the UK government in the next 24 hours.
On Monday night, Whitehall was finalising the remaining issues linked to the Blues takeover, with the deal expected to be given the final green light by government officials as early as Tuesday morning.
The final details being ironed out on Monday night were linked to the fact current owner Roman Abramovich holds a Portuguese passport meaning the takeover is required to be approved by authorities there, too.
Ministers are in talks with their Portuguese and European Commission counterparts to provide them with the assurances they need to approve the deal.
Boehly’s deal to buy Chelsea has hit a number of stumbling blocks in recent days, most of them linked to the Government’s insistence that Abramovich – a sanctioned individual – shouldn’t benefit from the sale of the club.
But the Russian oligarch is understood to have satisfied the government that he will not receive a single penny of the sale, though establishing that was difficult due to the club’s complicated ownership structure.
