Chelsea fans protested against the duo of CEO, Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly’s running of the club ahead of their game against Southampton on Tuesday night.
The Blues fans are angry with the running of the club that has seen over £1bn spent on transfer fees since Clearlake and Boehly became majority shareholders in 2022, with no major trophy to show for it.
The fans gathered outside the Stamford Bridge to vent their frustrations.
Chelsea’s form has dropped off alarmingly heading into the Southampton game, with just three wins from their last 12 games under Enzo Maresca.
However the fans’ discontent runs a lot deeper than that, with a feeling that the club are obsessed with player trading over results and are unwilling to improve their Stamford Bridge home.
Clearlake bought a 61.5% stake in Chelsea when the takeover was completed in May 2022, while Boehly only owns 12.8%, the same share as fellow billionaires Mark Walter and Hansjorg Wyss. Clearlake, a private equity group, have previously shown interest in buying out Boehly’s shares but are not interested in selling themselves.
There does not appear to be any immediate prospect of a change of ownership at Chelsea, who have work to do to salvage a season that is falling apart. The Blues sit seventh ahead of the Southampton clash and a failure to miss out on the Champions League would be a huge disappointment
