Todd Boehly and Mark Walter are in talks to sell their respective stakes in Chelsea to fellow co-owners Clearlake Capital, potentially ending their roles at the Premier League club.
The move could value Chelsea at £5.5bn, a significant uplift from the £4.25bn the Boehly-fronted consortium paid to acquire the club from sanctioned former owner Roman Abramovich.
That original purchase price included promised funds for stadium development, making the potential new valuation an even more striking reflection of how elite football assets have appreciated.
The talks come after Walter completed the sale of the LA Lakers NBA franchise for over $12bn, a landmark deal that followed several opened investigations into firms in which he holds interests.
Despite Clearlake Capital owning nearly two thirds of Chelsea, relations between the private equity fund and the Boehly-Walter side of the consortium have been strained, according to reporting from the Financial Times.
Professor Kieran Maguire told City AM: “A sale from the perspective of Boehly and Walter makes sense from their perspective. They don’t really have an operational say in the way that Chelsea is being run. Behdad Eghbali has taken over that position, so it does mean that Boehly’s position has become marginalised.”
Maguire pointed to rising market valuations as a key factor, noting that Forbes cited a multiple of 5.6 times revenue while a KPMG report pointed to around 4.9 times, giving the departing partners a realistic chance of recovering much of their investment.
He added: “I think his enthusiasm for watching football isn’t as necessarily as significant as it used to be,” while cautioning that Chelsea’s finances remain “quite scary” when examined at a group level.
Professor Rob Wilson told City AM that the situation appeared to be reaching a decisive moment, describing it as “a pretty significant endgame” for Chelsea’s complicated ownership structure since the 2022 takeover.
Wilson noted the irony in how the dynamic had shifted, saying: “Not long ago the conversation was about whether Boehly might find a way to buy out Clearlake and take greater control himself. Now it’s Clearlake potentially buying out Boehly.”
He suggested that a single dominant shareholder could resolve the uncertainty that has surrounded decision-making at the club, bringing greater clarity over who holds ultimate authority.
Wilson also highlighted the valuation implications, stating: “If a transaction points towards Chelsea being worth north of £5bn, it underlines how dramatically the economics of elite Premier League clubs continue to move, and is hot on the heels of the Liverpool story last week.”
He concluded: “Whatever you make of the sporting performance and the enormous transfer spending since 2022, Chelsea appears to have become a substantially more valuable asset and Clearlake seemingly wants to own even more of it.”
Spokespeople for both Walter and Boehly did not respond to the Financial Times when approached for comment, while Chelsea and Clearlake also declined to comment to the publication.