A story yesterday in financial outlet Bloomberg has claimed that Chelsea’s two main controlling owners, Clearlake Capital (i.e. Behdad Eghbali & Co) and Todd Boehly are “exploring their ownership” of the club and are “assessing whether they can potentially buy each other out”.
This isn’t the first time we’re hearing of a growing rift between the two main figureheads, though as before, the idea of any sort of actual power struggle has been played down by subsequent briefings.
Of course, the idea of a power struggle may be far-fetched by definition with Clearlake already owning over 60 per cent of the club, and Boehly’s actual stake comprising of only a third of the rest (so around 13 per cent). Mark Walter, a Boehly ally from the Los Angeles Dodgers owns another third of that remainder, while the final third belongs to billionaire investor Hansjörg Wyss. Boehly did bring all these parties together to establish the consortium that eventual won the bidding for the club in 2022, but Clearlake brought most of the money and Eghbali has positioned himself as the most powerful of the bunch in the last 12-18 months — including in setting the club’s overall direction (even if football media at large have continued to focus solely on Boehly as the figurehead).
That direction is said to be the key issue that’s causing this rift, with “differing opinions on Chelsea’s recruitment policy, the team’s underperformance and the failure to make progress on building a new stadium” all contributing to it.
Boehly remains the club chairman and thus has to approve all major decision as well. Barring any action on his part, he should remain so until 2027 at which point the chairmanship will rotate over to Eghbali’s side.
Boehly himself has not responded to this story, directly or indirectly as yet, but Clearlake did brief through Matt Law (in The Telegraph) and Ben Jacobs that they have “no intention of selling their stake in the club”. The briefings assure that the owners’ relationship remains “professional” though it does not deny that things have soured of late.
Understand Clearlake Capital do not wish sell any of their Chelsea shares. They would only consider increasing their stake should another minority investor, such as Todd Boehly, wish to sell. Nothing imminent at this stage, although Clearlake would explore if other shareholders… pic.twitter.com/USwD53mLJm
— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) September 6, 2024
So obviously that’s not great by any stretch; we have enough issues already on both the footballing side and the commercial side without having to deal with a growing internal power struggle as well — especially as that struggle would most likely result in Clearlake taking over fully.
Boehly has always been the one to advocate from the sporting side more so than the investment vehicle side that is Clearlake’s priority, so the prospect of him (and probably Mark Walter alongside him) getting bought out does not fill me with great excitement for the club’s competitive future. Unfortunately, Boehly did fumble the bag a bit early on by taking on far too much (i.e. sporting director and all) but it sure seems like he’s more in it for the “right reasons” than the rest — the right reasons being to actually maintain our modern winning tradition and such. Obviously we’re not privy to what actually goes on behind the scenes, so a lot of this is just conjecture and assumption, but I do know which flavor of ownership I prefer … and it’s not the one that’s looking to game PSR while clearly just looking to maximize the future return on their investment.
Clearlake Capital not interested in Chelsea sale amid ownership power battle claims – would only be interested in increasing stake #cfc https://t.co/U74VIJoXuL
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) September 6, 2024
