The consortium BlueCo which purchased Chelsea last year has reached an agreement to become shareholders of French club Racing Strasbourg.
Chelsea said on Thursday that the agreement would see BlueCo invest in Strasbourgโs first teams and academy.
The Premier League club also said that Marc Keller would remain the clubโs president having been at the helm since 2012 when the club was at risk of being liquidated.
Strasbourg have since moved up from the third tier to Ligue 1 where they have played for the last six seasons and also won the French League Cup in 2019.
They finished 15th in Ligue 1 last season.
โThis is an important day for Racing (Club de Strasbourg). Itโs something my shareholder friends and I have been thinking about for the past two years,โ Keller said in a statement.
โWeโve built a club thatโs healthy at every level and well managed. Although there was no financial urgency, we were aware that we had reached the ceiling of our model.
โIf we wanted to continue driving Racing forward and projecting it into a new dimension, we necessarily needed to be accompanied by a solid structure capable of supporting our development and our ambition.โ
Details of the stake were not disclosed but reports say the consortium would have close to a 100 per cent ownership having paid 82.13 million dollars.
Chelsea were taken over last year by an investment group led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital after Roman Abramovich was forced to sell the Premier League club.
โBlueCo plans to make an active contribution to the development of the model implemented by Marc Keller.
โFirst, financially, by providing capital that will enable investment in the menโs and womenโs first teams, the academy and across the club.โ (Reuters/NAN)