Boehly and Walter weigh sale of their Chelsea stakes to Clearlake Capital
Todd Boehly and Mark Walter are considering selling their shares in Chelsea to majority owner Clearlake Capital, a move reported on 17 August 2026 that would hand the private equity firm full control of the club at Stamford Bridge.
Clearlake already holds more than 60% of Chelsea, while Boehly, Walter and Hansjörg Wyss each own about 13% and share operational control under an arrangement struck when the club was bought from Roman Abramovich four years ago; Clearlake’s investment is managed by Behdad Eghbali and José E Feliciano. The proposed transaction would give Clearlake outright control of the club’s operations and strategic decisions.
Relations between the two ownership blocs have been frozen for almost two years after reports first emerged that they were attempting to buy each other out following a dispute over strategy, notably plans for a new stadium. That stalemate has been a defining feature of Chelsea’s ownership since the post-Abramovich purchase.
Discussions about a possible sale have restarted in the past few weeks, first reported by the Financial Times, and the mooted deal has been said to value the club at more than £5bn. Walter is seeking to raise funds to pay insurers after a US federal probe into alleged tax fraud prompted asset disposals.
The US Department of Justice is investigating Walter over $21bn in loans that it has been alleged were not disclosed to state insurance regulators, a matter the source links to the recent rapid sale of assets. Last week Walter sold the Los Angeles Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5bn, having bought the NBA franchise for $10bn just a year earlier, and that transaction has fuelled speculation about his longer-term involvement at Chelsea; Walter is described as a 66-year-old in the report.
Boehly and Walter are longtime business partners and friends who previously invested together in the LA Dodgers and the LA Sparks; together with Wyss they hold 38% of Chelsea through Blueco 22 Holdings, though it is not clear whether Wyss would join any sale. Under the terms of the £2.5bn purchase from Abramovich after he was sanctioned by the UK government following the invasion of Ukraine, no shareholder may sell to a third party without the consent of the others, making an external buyer unlikely and strengthening Clearlake’s position.
A sale by Boehly and Walter would leave Clearlake with more than 86% of the club’s shares and effective control, including authority over the bid to build a new stadium at Stamford Bridge. Boehly, who publicly fronted the 2022 takeover and acted as interim sporting director in that summer’s transfer window—overseeing signings such as Raheem Sterling and Marc Cucurella—stepped back after 12 months as Eghbali assumed more operational control on Clearlake’s behalf; he was due to stand down as chair at the end of the season with a Clearlake representative scheduled to succeed him for five years.
The report notes that Boehly and Walter paid £325m for their shares four years ago and would be expected to seek a significant premium on that sum. Representatives of Clearlake, Boehly and Chelsea were approached for comment.