Chelsea will move into uncharted territory and a consortium led by Todd Boley will buy the Blues from Romain Abramovich, ending a long bidding process that has been ongoing since March. Boley, which owns the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Dodgers, is expected to receive Premier League approval to complete the acquisition after reaching an agreement with New York investment bank Raine Group. The American billionaire, with a net worth of around £3.3 billion, has been a favourite choice for Chelsea fans due to his knowledge of the club and his success in other sports. His proposals were fairly transparent during the bidding process, which also helped his career.
Of course, no boss is likely to continue at Chelsea like Abramovich. Abramovich barely needs to run the club for profit, injecting his £1.6 billion personal fortune into the team to ensure the team remains successful on the pitch. From now on, the Blues will need to be smarter in the transfer market and fund the business with new revenue streams. In fact, when it comes to player transfers, Chelsea now intend to follow the example of Liverpool, who are competing with Manchester City for the Premier League title by signing specifically according to the coach's football philosophy.
In fact, while the early days of the Abramovich era were undoubtedly crazy when it comes to transfers, the Blues' strategy is now more mature, and the huge investment in Cobham College has been paying off for years. Of course, while Chelsea have begun to turn to the data-based scouting development advocated by Liverpool, the market is still making costly mistakes. Lukaku's signing with a club record of £100 million is clearly the clearest example, as the Belgian simply doesn't fit Tuchel's style of play.
In addition to figuring out what to do with Lukaku this summer, it is understood that The Boley camp is also concerned about the players' expiring contracts, with Rudiger and Christensen already telling the club they will be leaving on a free transfer this summer. Given mount and Reece James' low salaries, the new owners are desperate to make sure they are not tempted to leave Stamford Bridge. Nevertheless, the team led by Boley is aware of all the issues that urgently need to be addressed, which will inspire Chelsea fans. However, this should not come as a surprise given the exhaustive investigation of the club when Burley first tried to acquire Chelsea in 2019.
In the end, of course, Abramovich rejected his £2.2 billion bid, although the Russian began to accept the idea of selling after the British government withdrew his Tier 1 investment visa after political tensions with Russia mounted. Meanwhile, Chelsea's ambitious £1 billion Stamford Bridge redevelopment plan has been shelved. Now that the Blues' stadium is one of the smallest in the Premier League, solving this problem is key to finding a new boss. In fact, Boley's team came up with one of the most detailed reconstruction plans and spoke with several architects, such as Jane-Mary-Smith and David Hickey, who were involved in Abramovich's original project.
In addition, all bidders are required to commit at least £1 billion to operate the operations of men's, women's and academies within the first decade of ownership. They were later also asked to add another £500 million to the sale price, either to Ukrainian-linked charities or frozen in government-controlled bank accounts. It must be noted that although Boli is the spokesperson for the acquisition, there are a large number of important players behind the scenes, the most important of which is Clearlake Capital, a private equity firm that funded at least 66% of the acquisition. Behind Clearlake is co-founder Behdad Eghbali, who is committed to becoming an "active director," despite the size of his other investments.
They will have a strong stake in the club's future, but in the process, some believe they will at least partially fund the debt purchase. Then there's Boley's longtime business partner, Hansjorg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire who won't play a particularly compelling role but will have a significant impact, with Mark Walter, the main owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and British investor Jonathan Goldstein. All in all, it's a group with incredibly good connections in the financial and political spheres.
They hired the services of big banks such as Goldman Sachs and Robey Warshaw, who served as advisers to George Osborne, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Chelsea supporter. They will also add Chelsea fans to the board, including House of Lords and New York Times columnist Danny Finkelstein. Alongside him is Barbara Charon, a powerful marketing executive in the entertainment industry. The reason so many high-profile personalities are drawn to bid is simply that assets like Chelsea don't often enter the market and Premier League clubs are becoming increasingly difficult to buy, even for the world's richest people. London-based Chelsea is a more attractive proposition for investors, who also believe the Blues are not using their business potential as effectively as some of their "Big6" rivals.
Speaking at the auction at the Milken Institute's 2022 global conference, Boley talked about his plans to make money for fans in creative ways. "You just describe it as 'symbolized' because it's digital," he said, "but the reality is, if you want to buy Green Bay Packers stock, it's 'symbolic' to me." You don't have rights, you don't have control, but you can say you have an 'interest' in them. I think loyalty programs, whether it's the Dodgers or the Lakers, Chelsea, we're all thinking about how to build direct customer relationships and then build on those foundations. If there's a form of 'conformation', then so be it, but what we really care about is direct access to our fan base. If we can have direct access to our fan base, [then] we can start thinking about [having] different levels of fans who want different products. So, we started thinking about what we really wanted to give 'super fans' and how to develop fans. ”
It will be interesting to see how his ideas are accepted and supporters may need to adjust their expectations of how the club operates. That could create more turmoil, and there is already uncertainty about the long-term future of the board and whether they will honor the commitments made during the negotiations. Still, with the Boli Group approaching their takeover, the Blues are now poised to move on from the glorious but ultimately controversial era under Abramovich's rule.