Todd Boehly is no longer part of Chelsea. The chairman and fellow director Mark Walter have sold their stakes to Clearlake Capital, which means the American private equity firm now owns the club outright.
Clearlake, run by co-founders Behdad Eghbali and Jose E. Feliciano, already held 61.5 per cent. Boehly, Walter and the Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss each had 12.8 per cent. Wyss is staying on, described by the club as an important stakeholder and partner. The other two are gone.
What the deal is worth
Clearlake are understood to have paid close to one billion pounds for the two stakes, which together amount to roughly a quarter of the club. People close to the transaction put Chelsea's overall value at about five billion pounds. The consortium bought the club for 2.3bn in 2022 from Roman Abramovich, after the UK government sanctioned him over alleged links to Vladimir Putin, something he has denied.
BBC Sport reported back in August that Boehly and Walter were looking to sell. Multiple sources say the conversations inside the ownership group started after a rift that first showed itself in 2024, at which point both camps began working out who would buy whom.
Boehly signs off
"I would like to thank the many who helped secure a bright future for the club, including the English Premier League, the coaches and players, the talented leadership and staff at Chelsea, and the legions of dedicated fans," Boehly said, calling his time as chairman an honour.
Eghbali and Feliciano thanked him for his contribution and said he will always be part of the Chelsea story. Their stated focus now is infrastructure, sporting performance and player development.
Boehly and Walter have also sold their shareholding in Strasbourg, Chelsea's partner club in Ligue 1.
Four years, one trophy haul and a lot of transfers
The record since 2022 is mixed. Chelsea's best Premier League finish under the consortium was fourth in 2024-25, the same season they won the Uefa Conference League and the Fifa Club World Cup. Last season they finished tenth. Xabi Alonso arrived as manager in the summer.
The squad churn has been extraordinary, built around signing young players on very long contracts, with 39 exits in the summer window alone.
The stadium question
Chelsea still have to decide whether to redevelop Stamford Bridge or build somewhere new. Sources say that decision was one of the friction points between Boehly's side and Clearlake. With one owner rather than four, it should at least be a quicker conversation.
The club says there will be no changes to day-to-day operations, leadership or strategy.
One footnote worth knowing: Walter, who runs Guggenheim Partners, sold the Los Angeles Lakers last month for a record 12.5 billion dollars, a year after buying a majority stake. US federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are separately investigating companies in his business empire.
Source: BBC Sport
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