Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly is out on manoeuvres at the Club World Cup, which apart from being a huge money-spinner for the Blues is perhaps one of football’s biggest ever networking events.
The biggest names and faces in sovereign wealth and private equity, as well as football’s governance and commercial sphere are all gathered in the United States.
Todd Boehly, for example, has been spotted rubbing shoulders with FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Saudi Arabia sports minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal, two of the most powerful men in the game.
Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly laughs
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
There will be a few common topics of discussion, of course. Fundraising, sponsorship, PSR, infrastructure investment and so on. However, perhaps the most significant issue of the day and one which is particularly relevant for Chelsea is the multi-club model.
Going into 2025-26, 16 Premier League teams now operate in some form of multi-club structure.
🧵 The Crystal Palace sage is the tip of the iceberg. By my count, 16 Premier League clubs are part of some sort of multi-club network
Spurs, Wolves, Burnley, Fulham – if you don't see your club's name, your team has ties to another somewhere else in the world
Here are all 16🔽
— Adam Williams (@Adam___Williams) June 12, 2025
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A year after buying Chelsea, BlueCo took over French side Strasbourg in a deal worth around £65m. They have since bought several players from the Ligue 1 outfit, including Mamadou Sarr, who signed just a few weeks ago. But Strasbourg is not the limit of Chelsea’s owners’ multi-club ambitions.
The consortium, whose frontmen are Boehly and Clearlake Capital supremo Behdad Eghbali, have signalled their intent to buy several other teams and appear to have zeroed in on the Portuguese market in particular.
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As revealed by The Chelsea Chronicle last week, Chelsea’s owners remain interested in buying a stake in Sporting CP after having a bid rejected last year.
The Chelsea badge on a corner flag at Stamford Bridge
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
It is understood that the Lisbon club’s youth development credentials and link with the Brazilian market are especially attractive, though any minority investment deal is unlikely to materialise until at least next 2026 due to a two-year “cooling-off” period.
If they did pull off a part-takeover, however, it would be one of the biggest multi-club statements yet. Sporting are a huge club in their own right and surely would not settle for simply being a feeder for Chelsea.
And given that the BlueCo ownership era has been controversial at both Stamford Bridge and with Strasbourg, how might the potential part-takeover be managed?
Speaking exclusively to The Chelsea Chronicle, University of Liverpool football finance lecturer and Price of Football podcast host Kieran Maguire had the following to say on Chelsea’s latest multi-club play: “I think Boehly would have to accentuate the positives here.
“Chelsea have had a mixed relationship with Clearlake and Boehly since the acquisition. The fans are not convinced.
“The Sporting fans are likely to be quite militant in their response because they are very protective of their position as an independent club – it means a lot to them and you could see a situation where there are huge protests if they don’t get it right.
“On the back of that, it is going to be difficult unless you offer them enough money and it starts to turn fans’ heads. Football fans want to be associated with success and it would certainly be a big step ahead of Strasbourg.
“What is in it for Chelsea? Maybe they are seeing this as an entry point into South America. There is traffic between Portugal and Brazil.
“But with a stake of around 10 per cent, the board of directors at Sporting will want to do what is best for the club in terms of participation in the Champions League and perhaps the Club World Cup given how lucrative it is.
“The multi-club links make it awkward. A first refusal agreement could be feasible, but if I was a director at Sporting I’d need to make sure I was getting the most money from every agreement.”
BlueCo’s £1.75bn spending commitment could go towards multi-club masterplan
When BlueCo, which is made up of dozens of limited partners besides Eghbali and Boehly, bought Chelsea in 2022, the announcement outlined a £1.75bn funding commitment on top of the £2.5bn purchase price.
Some of that has been reserved for infrastructure upgrades, such as the plans to either expand Stamford Bridge or build a new stadium entirely on a different site.
However, it may well be that some of that fund has also been reserved for further takeovers, which would fit the description of “investment for the benefit of the club” outlined in the initial statement.
Chelsea’s owners have previously been linked with takeover opportunities in Brazil, Belgium and a handful of other markets.
The issues pertaining to UEFA’s conflict of interest rules remain, and the ongoing saga involving Crystal Palace and sister club Lyon could be a seismic moment in terms of how European football’s governing body plan to regulate on the multi-club system going forward.
For now, however, it seems like a smart strategy for Chelsea to continue to use Strasbourg – and potentially more new BlueCo clubs too – as part of an integrated approach to player development and recruitment.