Change but no change at Chelsea

Chelsea have announced that Clearlake Capital has taken “full control” of the club after completing a purchase of minority stakes from Todd Boehly and Mark Walter.

Boehly will leave his role as chairman. It ends the American’s four-year affiliation with the west London club, after he fronted the consortium with majority shareholders Clearlake that paid £2.3billion ($3bn) to acquire the club from sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in 2022.

Hansjorg Wyss, who holds a 12.8 per cent stake, will “remain an important stakeholder and partner in the ownership group”, the statement said, adding that there will be “no changes to the day-to-day operations, leadership or strategy” at the club.

Clearlake had always been adamant that they had no interest in relinquishing their majority stake and, if anything, would look to increase it. Now they have full control of Chelsea and BlueCo sister club Strasbourg, while Boehly and Walter have both been paid what they clearly regard as a fair price to sell up and walk away.

Note the line in the statement which says there will be “no changes to the day-to-day operations, leadership or strategy at the club”. This is a financial transaction, not a power shift, since Clearlake — principally through their co-founder Behdad Eghbali — have been running the show at Chelsea for most of the last four years.

A key point of tension has been removed from the boardroom. Boehly has not been comfortable as a back seat passenger, even if he has been careful not to air any grievances in public. Now he can focus on his many other investments, while Walter has followed his shock sale of the Los Angeles Lakers by raising another chunk of cash against the backdrop of an ongoing federal investigation into his business empire.

Wyss remaining on board is a surprise but not a shock. While closely associated with Boehly, he signed up to be a passive investor in Chelsea when BlueCo bought the club from Roman Abramovich in June 2022 and may well intend to remain a background figure in the ownership.

In one sense this simplifies things for Clearlake, while also increasing their potential return in a future sale if they are able to make Chelsea a success on and off the pitch in the coming years, But if they cannot, there will be only one place for supporters to direct the anger and blame.