Boehly and Walter cash out of Chelsea as Clearlake deal doubles club valuation

American owners exit after chaotic four-year spell

Todd Boehly and fellow American minority stakeholder Mark Walter have sold their 12.8% shares in Chelsea Football Club to Clearlake Capital, the group that led the club’s takeover from sanctioned former owner Roman Abramovich in May 2022.

The move ends Boehly’s four-year stint as chair of Chelsea, a period the Guardian’s Leander Schaerlaeckens describes as the “First Clearlake Era” or “Boehly Bungle”. The exiting owners bought in at a $3.3bn (£2.5bn) valuation and are now exiting at $6.7bn (£5bn), effectively doubling the club’s supposed value.

Spending, losses and league decline

Since the takeover, Chelsea have placed 12th, sixth, fourth and 10th in the Premier League, having been champions in 2015 and 2017 and Champions League winners in 2021. The club has cycled through five permanent and four interim managers after Thomas Tuchel was sacked on arrival, and employed five sporting directors.

Per Transfermarkt, Chelsea spent about $2.37bn (£1.78bn) on 60 new players in the period. The same source values the current first team at just $1.23bn (£920m), leaving the club with a portfolio worth roughly half what was invested.

Signings cited as emblematic of the strategy include at least one of the Premier League’s all-time busts, Mykhailo Mudryk, and one of its worst contracts, Raheem Sterling. Chelsea also set a new Premier League record for the biggest pre-tax loss and, infamously, sold its women’s team to itself as part of accounting measures to comply with financial regulations.

American sports capitalism model

The sale is presented as the final stage of the American ownership model now prevalent in the Premier League, where billionaire owners pass stakes among themselves for an increased price rather than acting as stewards.

Boehly, Walter and the other new owners committed $2.3bn (£1.75bn) when they took over. The Financial Times described the exit as a “modest profit” after four chaotic years, illustrating a wider pattern where clubs are treated as ultra-scarce assets whose value appreciates regardless of on-pitch performance, provided relegation is avoided.

The article draws parallels with the Glazers’ Manchester United purchase in 2005 for $1.47bn and subsequent partial sale, Mark Walter’s rapid flip of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Fenway Sports Group’s 1,580% profit on Liverpool after a $2.2bn partial sale to a consortium including Jeff Bezos this summer.