Hamilton: Being part of Chelsea bid ‘incredibly exciting’

IMOLA, Italy (AP):

If you can’t play football, buy a football club.

That was part of Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton’s thinking when he joined a consortium that is bidding to buy Chelsea.

Hamilton, along with 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams, is part of a group trying to buy the Premier League club from sanctioned Russian owner Roman Abramovich.

Ahead of this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, the British driver – a longtime fan of rival London team Arsenal – spoke of his passion for the game since he was a young child.

“Ultimately, I’m a sporting fan. It is the biggest sport in the world and Chelsea are one of the biggest clubs in the world and most successful,” Hamilton said yesterday. “And when I heard about this opportunity, I was like, ‘Wow, this is one of the greatest opportunities to be a part of something so, so great.’

“When I was younger, I was trying to be the best player I could be and actually played for a team … but then I ended up following racing. As a kid, I could have only ever dreamed of being part of a team and an actual integral part of a team. So that’s for me one of the most exciting things.”

The bid – one of three that is still in the running to buy the club – is being fronted by former Liverpool and British Airways chairman Martin Broughton and World Athletics president Sebastian Coe.

And Hamilton said it was Broughton who persuaded him to join the consortium.

“Well, naturally I heard about it in the news, everyone’s obviously aware of it. And yeah, we were contacted and Sir Martin spoke to me on the phone and explained his and his team’s goals for if they were to win the bid, which was incredibly exciting and it was very much aligned with my values,” the seven-time world champion said.

Hamilton, in turn, helped convince Williams – who is a minority stakeholder in the Miami Dolphins NFL team.

“We spoke multiple times. Serena and I are very close, so we’re constantly in touch,” he said. “You know, she’s a phenomenal athlete and woman.

“We spoke about it. She asked me what my thoughts were on it and I told her that I’m going to be a part of it, and she was excited to join.”

Of the two other consortiums bidding for Chelsea, one is spearheaded by American businessman Todd Boehly, the part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the other by Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca and Canadian businessman Larry Tanenbaum.

A New York-based merchant bank, the Raine Group, has been overseeing the sale process, which was launched by Abramovich last month following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The oligarch has since been sanctioned by Britain and the European Union over his links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with assets frozen, including Chelsea.