Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images
Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images
Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly butted heads on a variety of issues during their time as co-owners of Chelsea, but financial expert Stefan Borson has found one area they are alarmingly similar.
Eghbali and Clearlake have bought out Boehly from his shares in the football club, seeing the American make a tidy amount of money for four years of unconvincing work.
Chelsea fans have never bought into the ownership since they replaced Roman Abramovich in 2022, protesting on numerous occasions asking them to step down from their roles.
Real Betis Balompie v Chelsea FC - UEFA Conference League Final 2025
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali’s alarming similarity
It has become clear that neither party has any past experience or knowledge of football, and Boehly was the public face of criticism, largely revolving around his brief stint as sporting director in the summer or 2022.
However, Stefan Borson believes the duo are similar in that regard, when it comes to wanting to be directly involved in the decision making despite their lack of knowledge of the situations.
He told ‘The Dressing Room‘: “He (Boehly) admits himself he knew nothing about football and yet was going around buying footballers, some of which simply because City were interested or another team was interested. And I think he quite liked the wining and dining around Barcelona and with the agents and these negotiations. And he found it fun.
“And I think ultimately, Eghbali has been similar. Eghbali got a huge portfolio at ClearLake. But as I understand it, Eghbali is day to day involved in decision making at Chelsea.
“So ordinarily when people like Eghbali or Clearlake buy businesses, they have a management team and they largely leave the management team to do their own business. And they will review it at monthly board meetings and they will be responsible partly for assessing very large transactions. But generally, they’re not involved in the day to day running.
“When you get into sports, these guys do want to be involved because it’s fun and it’s glamorous. And there’s big numbers involved.”
A graphic reading 'CONFIRMED: Todd Boehly sells his Chelsea stake to Clearlake Capital'. Image shows Todd Boehly at Stamford Bridge.
Credit: Photo by Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images
Todd Boehly would've been better off buying out Clearlake. I wouldn't have minded that. Egbhali hasn't covered himself in glory at all. Don't trust that man. Todd tried to do right by the fans and was undermined by Egbhali and co at every turn..
A bad mistake .. I wish he had staid, he had been given bad advise from his sporting directors .. he had just turned a corner Thankyou for All you done
Xabi Alonso seemed welcoming of Eghbali gaining more power at Chelsea, and he will be encouraged by the evidence from the recent summer transfer window that their policy is changing.
Even though they did not address the issues in the middle of the park, they would not seem so bad if Moises Caicedo had been fit to start the season.
The signings of Morgan Rogers, Maxence Lacroix and Danny Welbeck brought a combination of Premier League experience and first team-ready talent, a far cry from previous summers.
Alonso would not have taken on the role of manager without sufficient assurances, and he will be waiting for these to be delivered on in future windows, in particular with the addition of a midfielder such as Adam Wharton or Alex Scott.