Chelsea owner Todd Boehly ‘will cut his day-to-day involvement in HALF to focus on other business interests’ after a torrid first year that saw him spend £600m on players to finish in the bottom half
- Boehly will reportedly spend just 20 per cent of his time working on Chelsea
- That has halved since the early months following his £4.25bn takeover in 2022
- American businessman always planned to scale back his direct involvement
Chelsea owner Todd Boehly will reportedly cut his day-to-day involvement at the club by half after they endured a poor season despite a £600million outlay on new players.
The Blues will finish the American businessman’s first season in control in the bottom half of the Premier League.
Bloomberg report that Boehly is now spending just 20 per cent of his time on the running of the Stamford Bridge club – down from 50 per cent in the months straight after his May 2022 takeover.
The £4.25bn buy-out last year saw a consortium which included Boehly and his private equity firm Clearlake Capital take over the running of Chelsea from Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who was sanctioned following his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
At first, according to Bloomberg, Boehly spent around half his time concentrating on day-to-day activities at Chelsea.
Chelsea owner Todd Boehly reportedly plans to dial down his day-to-day involvement in the running of the west London club
Chelsea have endured a difficult season and are on course for a bottom half league finish
Unhappy Chelsea fans at Stamford Bridge take issue with Boehly during a match last month
In January, he stopped down as the club’s interim sporting director and always planned to gradually relinquish responsibility over time as executives he appointed bedded in.
This will allow Boehly to devote more time to his other business commitments, including the Los Angeles Lakers basketball and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball teams.
He is also co-founder and chief executive officer of Eldridge Industries, the investment firm that backs the owner of Hollywood Reporter and Variety magazines.
Boehly, 49, was happy to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on new players in an effort to get Chelsea competing for the major honours in England and Europe.
They have paid over £600m in the last two transfer windows signing the likes of Enzo Fernandez, Wesley Fofana, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Marc Cucurella and Raheem Sterling.
But that hasn’t translated into on-field success during a season which saw Thomas Tuchel and later Graham Potter dismissed as manager.
Chelsea would finish 12th in the Premier League table, which would be their worst season since a 14th-place finish in 1993-94.
They were beaten by Manchester City in both domestic cup competitions and lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals.
It has been a baptism of fire in English football for Boehly (right) and co-owner Behdad Eghbali
Graham Potter was hired and then fired after just a few months following poor results
Caretaker manager Frank Lampard hasn’t been able to create an upturn in Chelsea’s results
Frank Lampard took over as caretaker manager following Potter’s sacking but results haven’t improved. Mauricio Pochettino is expected to be Chelsea’s next permanent manager.
The Chelsea Women’s team have enjoyed a much better season, however. They will secure another Women’s Super League title this weekend if they beat Reading, having already won the FA Cup by defeating Manchester United at Wembley.
They did fall to Barcelona at the semi-final stage of the Women’s Champions League.
Chelsea have decided to freeze season ticket prices for the men’s team for the 12th straight year.
A statement accompanying this announcement read: ‘This season has not produced the results that any of us want.
‘We know what we are working towards, but equally we know that will require hard work, determination and commitment.
‘We all want to see Chelsea back where we belong and to share many more winning moments together at Stamford Bridge.’
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