Newcastle United chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly
Newcastle United chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly
Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly has insisted that American investors are 'very focused' on 'maintaining the culture' of the Premier League rather than coming together to enforce rule changes.
Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal all have custodians from the U.S. as do Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Bournemouth and Aston Villa for that matter. Burnley and Leeds, who have been promoted to the Premier League, also have Americans with stakes in the club.
Eleven clubs, as a result, will be majority-owned by U.S. backers next season with 14 votes needed to pass any proposals at top-flight meetings. Although these shareholders all have their own differing interests, Boehly was asked whether the Chelsea co-owner's influential countrymen could team up.
"We believe very much in the culture," he said with memories of the Super League fiasco still fresh from before his consortium bought the club. "We have been educated in the culture and we have been educated from the past so we're very focused on making sure we maintain the culture."
It was just a few weeks after Chelsea's takeover in 2022 that Boehly predicted that the so-called big six 'will become the big seven with the Saudi deal for Newcastle'. As much as the intense competition has been a 'frustration' for Boehly, the 51-year-old said it was also 'one of the great things' about the top-flight.
"If you look at the Premier League right now, there's so much excitement in it, especially with what's been going on in the last week," he added at the Qatar Economic Forum. "There's seven teams that could be making the Champions League.
"We will probably have nine teams in European competitions alone, which, for me, is testament to the quality of the product. To be part of that is a privilege.
"The level of competition is ferocious and the margin error is so small. I don't think I fully appreciated that the margin of error is so small. The sport has got more and more competitive in the Premier League."