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The Big Seven

Chelsea FC has a few problems. One disappointing season and a spending spree have left the club and its new American owners with a lot to prove.  Private equity firm Clearlake Capital and financier Todd Boehly paid £2.5bn to buy Chelsea last year from sanctioned Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, still the record for a football club anywhere.

But the spending didn’t stop there. Since summer 2022, Chelsea has splashed out more than €800mn on players, although the club has recouped €320mn in player sales.

Contrast Chelsea’s fortunes with Newcastle United. The £305mn that a Saudi-led consortium paid for the Tyne and Wear club in October 2021 is looking cheaper by the day after it qualified for the Champions League. There teams compete for €2bn of cash distributions from governing body Uefa — but Chelsea won’t be one of them.

Under Saudi ownership and with British financier Amanda Staveley at the helm, the Magpies have spent around €440mn on players, making back less than €60mn in sales. Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham have all spent more than Newcastle in that time — a sign of how competitive it is to stay at the top in England.

Only four teams are guaranteed a place in Europe’s top club competition, a squeeze for the so-called Big Six of Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur.

With Champions League football next year, Newcastle have arguably already made it a Big Seven. Compared to Chelsea, they’ve done it on the cheap, especially considering that the squad was in need of a revamp and struggling at the bottom of the table. Investors may well wonder whether there is value in top clubs and top prices.

That said, making the Champions League doesn’t mean you’ve made it.

Just look at Leicester City. English champions in 2015-16, Champions League quarterfinalists the following season are now playing in England’s second-tier league. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund surely wouldn’t abide such a fall from grace.

 

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