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Relations between Chelsea FC’s co-owners have worsened to the point where American financier Todd Boehly is pushing to buy a majority stake just two years after teaming up to acquire the west London football club for a record £2.5bn, according to people familiar with the situation.
The tension between Boehly and investment firm Clearlake Capital, whose co-founder Behdad Eghbali has taken a key role at Chelsea, has created uncertainty over one of the biggest and most expensive football clubs to change hands.
Boehly is considering all options, including raising funds to buy Clearlake, which manages more than $80bn in assets, but the investment firm has no intention of selling its stake in Chelsea, according to people familiar with the matter.
Boehly has been frustrated by the failure to make progress on key strategic goals, including stadium expansion and building the Chelsea brand, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Clearlake, which owns a majority stake in the club, is willing to talk to Boehly if he is willing to sell his stake, according to people close to the fund, but there is no guarantee of a deal.
While neither side has made an offer to the other, Boehly believes tensions have escalated to the point where the status quo has become unsustainable, according to people familiar with the situation. People close to Clearlake, however, characterized the business relationship as “cordial.”
The £2.5bn takeover came as former owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The forced sale in 2022 fetched a record price and was hailed as a symbol of the sport’s evolution into an asset class worthy of institutional investment.
Clearlake and former Guggenheim Partners chairman Boehly beat out rival bids from private equity tycoons Josh Harris and David Blitzer, and another group led by basketball magnates Stephen Pagliuca and Larry Tanenbaum. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, now a minority shareholder in Manchester United, also made a last-ditch attempt to buy the west London club.
Clearlake owns about 62 percent of Chelsea but shares voting rights with Boehly, whose group also includes Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss and Guggenheim Partners chief executive Mark Walter. The shared voting rights mean the situation could result in a stalemate, according to one of the people.
But the London club have struggled on the pitch since Clearlake and Boehly took over, despite spending more than €1.3bn on players and recouping €543mn in sales. In their first season in charge, the team finished 12th in the English top flight, their worst showing in almost three decades.
The club has also sacked three managers since the takeover. Chelsea, who won five league titles and two Champions League trophies under Abramovich, finished sixth last season.
This week Chelsea announced the departure of chief executive Chris Jurasek after 15 months at the club. Tom Glick, who preceded Jurasek as the club’s chief business executive, left after less than a year. For the second year in a row, the team began the new Premier League season last month without a main shirt sponsor.
The new owners have yet to make material progress toward renovating or replacing Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge. The stadium’s 40,000-capacity stadium lags behind major rivals in England and the rest of Europe. Chelsea’s owners raised hundreds of millions of dollars from American alternative asset manager Ares Management last year, with the intention of making improvements to the stadium or possibly moving to a new site.
Clearlake and Boehly declined to comment. Tensions between the two were previously reported by Bloomberg and The Daily Telegraph.
