US BILLIONAIRE and owner of the Indianapolis Colts American football team Jim Irsay bought the founding document of Alcoholics Anonymous for $2.4 million (£1.7m) at an auction on Saturday. 

The manuscript includes notes and scribbles from one of Alcoholics Anonymous’s founders, William Wilson, more commonly known as “Bill W.”

It is the third time the 161-page typed document has been sold. It sold in 2007 for £628,000 and for £1.1m in 2004. 

However, Saturday’s auction was delayed by a dispute with Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

Wilson’s widow Lois owned the papers after his death in 1971, and she passed them on to her friend Barry Leach. 

Alcoholics Anonymous said Leach signed and notarised a letter in 1979 saying the manuscript would belong to the organisation after his death. 

He died in 1985, but the manuscript did not make its way to Alcoholics Anonymous, which did not know about the notarised letter at the time.

Its ownership history in the ensuing years is not entirely clear until 2004, when Sotheby’s auctioned it off. 

Irsay said he plans to build a special display for the manuscript and display it for several months a year at Alcoholics Anonymous’s headquarters in New York.