Boehly and Walter sell Chelsea stakes to Clearlake after four-year ownership
Todd Boehly and Mark Walter sold their 12.8% shares in Chelsea to Clearlake Capital last week, bringing an end to their four-year run with the Premier League club. The stakes were acquired at a $3.3bn valuation and were sold at $6.7bn, effectively doubling the club’s stated value during their ownership.
The pair were part of the consortium that bought Chelsea in May 2022 from Roman Abramovich, with Todd Boehly taking on day-to-day control. Before that takeover Chelsea had been Premier League champions in 2017 and 2015 and won the Champions League in 2021. Since the acquisition, the club finished 12th, sixth, fourth and 10th in the league. Transfermarkt records show Chelsea spent $2.37bn (£1.78bn) on 60 players and currently values the first team at $1.23bn (£920m).
Managerial turnover was high during the period: after the sacking of Thomas Tuchel the club employed five permanent and four interim managers and had five sporting directors on its payroll. The ownership era also produced a Premier League record for the biggest pre-tax loss. The club sold its women’s team to itself in a move the article described as an accounting manoeuvre intended to keep Chelsea on the right side of financial regulations.
The club’s signings under the ownership included Mykhailo Mudryk, identified in the piece as one of the Premier League’s all-time busts, and Raheem Sterling, cited as one of the league’s worst contracts. The article highlighted the disparity between the $2.37bn spent on new players and the Transfermarkt valuation of the current first team at $1.23bn (£920m).
Boehly and Walter each bought their stakes when the club was valued at $3.3bn and sold at $6.7bn; the Financial Times reported the exiting owners made a "modest profit". The article linked that outcome to a $2.3bn (£1.75bn) investment Boehly, Walter and other new owners committed to when they took control of the club.
The piece argued that at the highest levels of American sports ownership the season-to-season balance sheet and on-field competitiveness can be secondary to acquiring scarce sporting assets and selling them on at a higher price. It referenced comparable transactions: the Glazer family's 2005 purchase of Manchester United for $1.47bn and the 2023 sale of a quarter stake to Sir Jim Ratcliffe for about $1.6bn; Mark Walter’s purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers for $10bn and resale for $12.5bn 14 months later, described in the article as occurring as he liquidates part of his sporting portfolio amid a federal investigation into fraud; and this summer’s consortium including Jeff Bezos buying 30% of Liverpool for $2.2bn from Fenway Sports Group, which had acquired the club for $464m in 2010 — a transaction the article said represented a 1,580% profit.
The author observed that, in that context, "Alexander Isak and Bradley Barcola really don’t sound all that expensive." The piece concluded with the blunt line: "It sucks."
The article noted Boehly will walk away after four years as chair of Chelsea—his influence had recently waned—with financial proceeds from the sale, and Mark Walter will likewise exit after selling his 12.8% stake to Clearlake Capital last week, transferring those shares to the new owners.