Todd Boehly and Mark Walter have held talks about selling their shares in Chelsea to Clearlake Capital, the majority owner, in a deal that would hand the private equity firm complete control of the club. Clearlake holds 61.5%. Boehly, Walter and Hansjorg Wyss each hold 12.8%, and at a valuation of more than £5bn, Boehly and Walter would receive about £640m apiece.
What is ending is not simply an ownership stake. It is an unusual arrangement, agreed when the consortium bought the club from Roman Abramovich four years ago in a £2.5bn deal, under which a majority owner shared operational control with its minority partners. That is a difficult structure to run a football club through in calm conditions, and conditions at Chelsea have not been calm.
The stalemate
The two groups have been locked in a standoff for almost two years, since reports first emerged that each was seeking to buy the other out. Clearlake, whose investment is led by Behdad Eghbali and Jose Feliciano, has effectively run the club regardless, with Eghbali the most influential figure at Chelsea since 2023 and closely involved in transfer dealings. A number of senior executives left within the first two years of the ownership.