Power struggle looms at Chelsea FC as US co-owners’ relationship sours

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Relations between Chelsea FC’s co-owners have deteriorated to the point where US financier Todd Boehly is pushing to buy out the majority shareholder just over two years since joining forces 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 on a key role at Chelsea, has cast uncertainty over one of football’s top clubs and the most expensive ever to change hands.

Boehly is considering all options, including raising funds to buy out Clearlake, which manages more than $80bn in assets, but the investment firm has no desire to sell down its stake in Chelsea, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Boehly has grown frustrated over an inability to progress on key strategic goals, including stadium expansion and building the Chelsea brand, according to a person close to the situation.

Clearlake, which owns a majority stake in the club, is open to talks with Boehly should he be willing to sell his stake, people close to the fund said, but there is no guarantee of a deal.

While neither side has made an offer to the other, Boehly believes that 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, characterised the business relationship as “cordial”.

The £2.5bn takeover came about when former owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The forced sale in 2022 fetched a record price, and was heralded as a symbol of sport’s evolution into an asset class worthy of institutional investment.

Clearlake and former Guggenheim Partners president Boehly beat rival bids from private equity tycoons Josh Harris and David Blitzer, and another group led by basketball moguls Stephen Pagliuca and Larry Tanenbaum. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, now a minority shareholder at Manchester United, also made a last-ditch attempt to buy the west London club.

Clearlake owns roughly 62 per cent 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 that the situation could result in stalemate, according to one of the people.

But the London club has struggled on the pitch since Clearlake and Boehly took control, despite spending more than €1.3bn on players and recouping €543mn from sales. In their first season in charge, the team finished 12th in the English top flight, its worst performance in almost three decades.

The club has also dismissed three managers since the acquisition. Chelsea, which 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 top business executive, left after less than a year. For the second year running, the team kicked off the new Premier League season last month without a main shirt sponsor.

The new owners are also yet to make material progress towards renovating or replacing Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge. The stadium’s 40,000 capacity lags behind major rivals in England and the rest of Europe. Chelsea’s owners raised hundreds of millions of dollars from US alternative asset manager Ares Management last year, with an eye on making stadium improvements or possibly moving to a new site.

Clearlake and Boehly declined to comment. The tensions between the two were previously reported by Bloomberg and The Daily Telegraph.

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