Lewis Hamilton confirms he has joined bid to buy Roman Abramovich's soccer team, with Serena Williams also reportedly involved

• Final bids to buy Chelsea FC, the soccer team owned by Roman Abramovich, were submitted last week.
• F1 icon Lewis Hamilton has now joined one of the remaining bids, his team confirmed Thursday.

Two of the world's biggest sporting stars have joined a bid to buy London soccer team Chelsea from the sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, Sky News reported Thursday.

A representative for seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton confirmed to Insider that he has joined a consortium led by the British businessman Martin Broughton to buy Chelsea.

Sky had earlier reported his involvement, saying that tennis icon Serena Williams has also joined the bid.

Sky reported that both Hamilton and Williams have pledged around $13 million of funding to the multibillion dollar deal, though Hamilton's team denied that figure.

Williams is yet to confirm her involvement, and Serena Ventures did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Broughton's is one of three bids currently being considered: The others are from a group led by Todd Boehly, the co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, and from Stephen Pagliuca, who part-owns both the NBA's Boston Celtics and Italian soccer team Atalanta.

Abramovich, a billionaire with close ties to President Vladimir Putin, put Chelsea up for sale shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, saying that his continued involvement in the club was an unnecessary distraction. Days later he was sanctioned by the UK government, putting the sale in doubt.

However, the UK granted a special license to allow the sale process to begin, with the American bank Raine Group spearheading its execution. The license was granted on the condition that the UK government approves the new owner.

Raine opened bidding in March, narrowing down a number of offers to the three remaining choices last week. A decision on which bid Raine will submit to the UK government is expected in the coming days.

While it is unclear which bid will be successful, Broughton's consortium is unique in being helmed by a Brit. Both Boehly and Pagliuca are American.

Both Hamilton and Williams are established investors. Williams' investment firm, Serena Ventures, has already raised $111 million in its initial funding round, with the aim of backing companies which value diversity.

In January 2022, Hamilton joined part of a $200 million funding round for Zapp, a UK-based rapid grocery delivery startup, CNBC reported.