(Sept 17): Chelsea Football Club owner Clearlake Capital agreed to buy out chairman Todd Boehly and director Mark Walter, bringing an end to a turbulent period among the club’s owners.
The deal, announced late on Wednesday, sets an enterprise value of about £5 billion (RM27.22 billion), according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified describing terms. Walter is selling as his businesses face scrutiny from US authorities. The transaction hands Clearlake control of the club.
Clearlake and Boehly led a consortium that bought Chelsea from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in 2022 but fell out over its direction in late 2024 following a period of heavy spending on players led by Boehly, a disagreement first reported by Bloomberg News. Talks over whether each side could buy the other out dragged on for years.
Now, the federal probe of Walter’s businesses has prompted him to reshape his holdings, stirring up deal talks on multiple fronts, including around his sports franchises. Last month, Walter agreed to sell the Los Angeles Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a record US$12.5 billion (RM50.61 billion). Walter’s TWG Global later said it wasn’t looking to sell more sports assets at “‘fire sale’ prices.”
The billionaire financier expected the Chelsea sale to amount to a premium on what he originally invested, a representative told Bloomberg last week as the agreement neared. He and Boehly may collect £950 million cash for their combined 25% stake, the Financial Times reported. The club’s broader enterprise value includes debt.
Chelsea’s on-pitch performance has experienced significant volatility since the London club’s 2022 takeover in a £2.5 billion deal. It slumped to 12th in the Premier League in the 2022/23 season before rallying to sixth a year later. Results improved in the 2024/25 campaign as the team finished fourth to secure Uefa Champions League qualification, alongside lifting the Uefa Conference League and Fifa Club World Cup trophies.
However, performance dipped again during the 2025/26 season, with Chelsea sliding to 10th position, missing out on European football, and ending the year without silverware.
The owners prioritised signing young talent on long-term contracts, outlaying more than £1.5 billion on nearly 50 players through July 2025. While the strategy generated high-value assets like star-player Cole Palmer, it led to squad bloat and frequent player turnover. Managerial changes also continued to impact stability.
The massive outlay on transfer fees created significant financial pressure for the club. Chelsea reported revenue of £490.9 million for the financial year ending June 30, 2025, the second-highest revenue in the club’s history, but alongside a pretax loss of £262.4 million, the largest ever recorded by a Premier League club.
By comparison, rival Liverpool FC reported revenue of £703 million in its latest public financial results, with pretax profit of £15.2 million. The club recently sold a stake to a group of investors including Jeff Bezos at an equity valuation of about US$6 billion. Chelsea’s equity valuation of about US$4.7 billion.
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