New Delhi: Chelsea Football Club is one of England’s biggest clubs in terms of fan-following and on-field success. Based in West London, they are the only London club to win the UEFA Champions League, the biggest club competition in European football, doing so most recently in 2021 under German manager Thomas Tuchel. However, ever since that fateful night in Porto, things have mostly gone downhill for the club.
Beloved owner Roman Abramovic was forced to sell the club in March 2022. The club has been in turmoil ever since, something that began reflecting in the team’s performances on the field, which was evident in the team’s position in the league table over the last two seasons. Now it seems like there could be another period of uncertainty for the club with news breaking out that there’s a possible rift within BlueCo, the consortium that owns Chelsea now.
What’s happening behind the scenes within BlueCo?
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the English government sanctioned the then-Chelsea owner Roman Abramovic and froze all his assets within the United Kingdom because of his ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Due to the sanctions imposed on him, Abramovic was forced to put the club up for sale in March of that year and by May 2022, the BlueCo consortium had agreed to take over the English club.
The consortium consists of Todd Boehly, an American Businessman who owns other sporting teams like Major League Baseball’s LA Dodgers and the Women’s NBA side LA Sparks along with Mark Walter, who is also a part of the consortium and Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, all of whom own around 38% of the club. The majority owners are Clearlake Captial, who are also part of BlueCo, and they own the rest 62% of the club with Clearlake founders Behdad Eghbali and Jose Feliciano playing an important role in the functioning of the club.
🚨 Relations between Chelsea’s co-owners have deteriorated to the point where Todd Boehly is pushing to buy out Clearlake just over two years since joining forces to acquire the club.
(Financial Times) #CFC pic.twitter.com/Obai7IjkTT
— Chelsea Dodgers (@TheBlueDodger) September 7, 2024
Reports arose over this weekend that things aren’t going smoothly amongst the owners and there is reportedly been a falling out between Clearlake’s Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly, the two key figures at the club. According to reports, the tensions have grown between both Eghbali and Boehly to such an extent that both of them are looking to buy each other’s shares out.
While Boehly is the current club chairman and has been named the co-controlling owner of the club, he has gradually lost power at the club ever since stepping down as the interim sporting director in January 2023. Even though the club’s sources have denied any rifts behind closed doors, other senior figures of the club have reportedly recognized that there is a rift between the two major blocs, Clearlake Captial and the group aligned to Todd Boehly which includes Hansjörg Wyss and Mark Walter.
Both parties are interested in buying one another out, but Clearlake reportedly has no interest in selling any percent of the shares it owns but would be open to buying out Boehly’s shares. Conversely, according to a report by The Telegraph, Boehly believes he can quickly raise over £2.5 billion to make an offer to buy Clearlake Captial’s shares in the club which will also offer them a profit on their initial investment. The report also says that investors are ready to back Boehly, who has a 20 to 30-year vision for the club.
Why did the owners have a falling out?
Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali are at odds with one another after just two years at the club. (Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
There have been many reports mentioning that the owners, specifically Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali had a falling out with each other but it’s important to know that they were never the best of friends in the first place. Their relationship was one of convenience, forged in 2022 so they could take over the club quickly but now it seems that cracks are beginning to show in this marriage of convenience although their relationship right now is best described as professional.
One of the biggest reasons for their rift is the difference in their approach and ideas regarding how should a football club be managed, with both of them having different ideas on that aspect. According to a report by Sky Sports, there are four major reasons for the falling out. One of these four reasons is the aforementioned direction of the club and how it should be run.
The other three reasons for the fallout are the number of recruitments made by the club, the underperformance of the team on the field and the inability to progress on a new stadium, which Chelsea as a club have been trying to work on since the days of Roman Abramovic. While Clearlake does hold the majority shares, the deal between these parties was structured such that all of Eghbali, Boehly, and Feliciano need to sign off on major decisions and that complicates things further.
Both parties are currently firm on their stance of not wanting to give up their share of the club but things can change in the future. Whatever the owners decide, it should be done quickly as the club absolutely cannot afford to have another season where they’re marred by off-field controversies. With a young squad and a young manager at the helm, they need all the support from the owners and not the bickering we’re hearing about currently.
News broke out in the past few days that Chelsea co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali have had a falling out and are looking to buy each other’s shares out. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
