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Relations between Chelsea FC’s co-owners have deteriorated to the point that American investor Todd Boley is threatening to buy out the largest shareholder, just over two years after they teamed up to buy the west London football club for a record £2.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
Tensions between Boly and investment firm Clearlake Capital – whose co-founder Vedad Eghbali plays a key role at Chelsea – have cast uncertainty over the management of one of world football’s top clubs and the club’s most expensive transfer in history.
According to people familiar with the matter, Boley is considering all options, including raising capital to acquire Clearlake, which manages more than $80 billion in assets, but Clearlake has no intention of selling its Chelsea stake.
A person familiar with the matter said Boly had become frustrated with the lack of progress on key strategic objectives, such as expanding the stadium and building the Chelsea brand.
Clearlake, which owns a majority stake in the club, would be open to discussions if Borley agreed to sell his stake, people close to the fund said, but there is no guarantee a deal will be reached.
Neither side has made an offer to the other, but Mr. Boley believes tensions have escalated to an unsustainable level, according to people familiar with the matter, though a source close to Clear Lake described the business relationship between the two companies as “friendly.”
The £2.5bn takeover came as former owner Roman Abramovich faced sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the forced sale in 2022 traded at a record price and was hailed as a symbol of the sport’s evolution into an asset class worthy of institutional investment.
Clearlake and Borley, the former head of Guggenheim Partners, beat off rival bids from another group led by private equity tycoons Josh Harris and David Blitzer and basketball greats Steven Pagliuca and Larry Tannenbaum. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who currently holds a minority stake in Manchester United, also made a last-ditch effort to buy the west London club.
Clearlake owns about 62% of Chelsea but shares voting power with Borly, whose group also includes Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss and Guggenheim Partners Chief Executive Mark Walter. The shared voting power could lead to a stalemate, one of the people said.
But despite spending more than €1.3 billion on player acquisitions and recouping €543 million from sales since Clearlake and Boley took over, the London club have struggled on the pitch: in their first season in charge, the team finished 12th in England’s top flight, their worst performance in almost 30 years.
The club has sacked three managers since taking over. Chelsea, who won five league titles and two Champions League titles under Abramovich, finished sixth last season.
Chelsea announced this week that chief executive Kris Jurasek would step down after 15 months at the club. Jurasek’s predecessor, Tom Glick, left the club as chief executive less than a year ago. The team began the new Premier League season last month without a main shirt sponsor for the second consecutive year.
The new owners have also yet to make significant progress on renovating or rebuilding Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge, whose 40,000-capacity stadium lags behind its major rivals in England and Europe. Chelsea’s owners raised hundreds of millions of dollars last year from U.S. alternative asset manager Ares Management with a view to refurbishing the stadium or even moving to a new site.
Mr Clearlake and Mr Boley declined to comment. The tensions between the two men were earlier reported by Bloomberg and The Daily Telegraph.
