The Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital consortium has officially completed the purchase of Chelsea, ending Roman Abramovich’s 19-year spell running the club.
The total investment will cost £4.25 billion ($5.2bn), with £2.5bn ($3.2bn) ending up being the sale price of the club, while there is an agreement in place that £1.75bn (2.1$bn) will be invested over 10 years.
The purchase agreement was signed a fortnight ago and has been waived through by the Premier League Owners’ and Directors’ test, while the UK government, Portuguese authorities and European Union (EU) have all approved the financial transaction.
Boehly is the co-owner of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Los Angeles Dodgers and a minority investor in the National Basketball Association (NBA) team LA Lakers.
He tried to buy Chelsea in 2019 for £2.2bn ($2.7bn) only to see his offer rejected. He has publicly stated his interest in buying a Premier League team and is the face of this successful bid.
Boehly is expected to take a seat on the board and a guiding role despite only having a minority stake.
The majority of the money has been put up by Clearlake Capital with both the private equity firm’s co-founders José E. Feliciano and Behdad Eghbali to be involved.
Mark Walter, who is the principal owner of the Dodgers, is also involved, along with Boehly’s long-term associate and fellow billionaire Hansjorg Wyss.
In non-executive board and advisory roles are Danny Finkelstein, the Times columnist and Tory peer, along with Barbara Charone, who is a PR executive in London.
What will change at Chelsea under new ownership?
The Blues will no longer be a loss-making operation with Abramovich pumping in £1.5bn ($1.9bn) of his personal wealth to keep the club’s lavish spending going.
That’s not to say the new owners won’t invest, having done so in the past with their other sports teams, but they will look to increase revenues to ensure the books are balanced.
It will be more akin to a Liverpool-style model with data driving many decisions at the club.
They have also agreed to invest in Stamford Bridge, the academy, the Women’s Team and Kingsmeadow (women’s team stadium) and continued funding for the Chelsea Foundation.
Boehly is understood to have a detailed plan for the first-team stadium to bring it to the level of the top European football stadia.
As for summer targets, Tuchel will ask for central defenders initially and Boehly’s group intends to renew contracts for key players including Mason Mount and Reece James.
Source: goal.com
