Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly and director Mark Walter have agreed to sell their 25 per cent stake in the club to majority shareholders Clearlake Capital in a deal which values Chelsea at £5bn.Â
The deal paves the way for Clearlake to take full control of Chelsea, owning 86.5 per cent of the club, with Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss owning 13.5 per cent.
Boehly was the face of the consortium which bought Chelsea in 2022 but Clearlake co-founder Behdad Eghbali has become the most powerful figure at the club. Chelsea say there will be no changes to the day-to-day operations, leadership or strategy at the club following this transaction.
Boehly and Walter are making a small profit on their investment. Jonathan Goldstein has also stepped down from the Chelsea board, along with Boehly and Walter. They no longer have any role in Chelsea's governance, management or decision-making.
There are no plans to appoint a new chairman but the executive sporting and commercial team are remaining in place.
The UK government forced Roman Abramovich to sell Chelsea for £2.5bn, with a guarantee of £1.5bn to be invested in the club.
Boehly said: "It has been an honour to serve as chairman of Chelsea Football Club. 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.
"I have valued my partnership with Clearlake and the wider ownership group, and the collective decisions and investment we have made to support the immediate and long-term success of the club.
"I am confident that Chelsea is well positioned for continued success under Clearlake's leadership."
Eghbali and Jose Feliciano, co-founders of Clearlake Capital, said in a statement: "Todd has been an important partner throughout our ownership of Chelsea, and we thank him for his time and contribution as chairman. He will always be a part of the Chelsea story and family.
"Clearlake has served as Chelsea's majority owner since 2022, and as we move to full control our focus is to continue investing in the club's infrastructure, sporting performance, player development and delivering long-term success for Chelsea and the club's supporters."
if they could not agree on the future of Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea bosses are considering whether to leave Stamford Bridge or to expand, with Earl's Court seen as a possible new location.
All options are being evaluated, with the project said to be complicated by the limited space in London to build.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Boehly said: "We have to think long term about what we're trying to accomplish.
"We have a big stadium development opportunity that we have to flesh out. That's going to be where we're either aligned, or we ultimately decide to go different ways."
There had been tensions too between Boehly and Clearlake in 2024.
Your Site News reported in September 2024 that Boehly had been unhappy with the way the club is being run and that he did not want Mauricio Pochettino to lose his job as head coach in May of that year.
Enzo Maresca replaced Pochettino and went on to win the Conference League and Club World Cup, but he left at the start of 2026, with Chelsea eventually finishing 10th and without European football.
Xabi Alonso was appointed as the new manager this summer and has the full support of the ownership.
Your Site News' James Savundra:
"Xabi Alonso has felt the full support of the club since he joined in July. He really enjoys the working conditions, he's very happy working with those above him and there's clear alignment with the board in terms of the strategy.
"The day-to-day running, the leadership, the strategy, that remains unchanged. This very much is a financial transaction. There's no real power shift
"In terms of the strategy, that remains very clear and unchanged. Chelsea want to be consistently challenging for silverware. They want to be at the very top of the Premier League table, challenging domestically and in Europe, and they want a period of sustained success.
"In terms of their transfer strategy, it will be very similar to what we've seen over the course of the summer. We know what happened during the first three years under Clearlake. They really targeted young players.
"Chelsea will continue to target the best young players in world football, but at the same time, they'll also look to sign players that are ready-made from the Premier League, ready-made to make an immediate impact."
Your Site News' Kaveh Solhekol:
"Chelsea supporters have mixed feelings about Todd Boehly. Many will remember what happened in the first transfer window, when he was in charge as interim sporting director.
"They had very, very mixed fortunes, signing players like Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Denis Zakaria. It was not a great transfer window.
"The issue Boehly had was that although he was the figurehead of the takeover, he didn't have more than 12 and a half per cent of the shares. The majority shareholders were always Clearlake.
"And for the past few years, Behdad Eghbali, the co-founder of Clearlake, has been the most powerful person at the club.
"I'm not sure what the future holds for Boehly. He's a big investor. He's got more than 100 investments. He likes investing in sports. For instance, he's a co-owner of the LA Dodgers.
"I've just got a funny feeling that he may be back in English football before too long, because if you speak to American sports investors, they will tell you that one of the places to be is the Premier League."
