At least Todd Boehly now knows what he is getting for his £4.25billion. Hopefully he will not be experiencing acute buyer’s remorse today. But he looked on ruefully, flanked by his colleagues from his private investment firm Eldridge, lawyer Duncan Bagshaw and his corporate takeover specialist, E Adams Miller, as Conor Coady headed home the 97th-minute equaliser, which laid bare Chelsea’s slump in form.
Earlier he had looked on exasperated as VAR took a good three minutes to decide that Ruben Loftus Cheek’s goal was offside as fans of both clu bs sang ‘F*** VAR.’ His looked puzzled, held out his hands in bemusement and appeared to frown, though his dark glasses. Welcome to the Premier League, Todd. There will be plenty more weeks like this.
On Saturday, at 1.35am, the club released the statement that Boehly, Clearlake Capital, his LA Dodgers partner Mark Walter and Swiss medical device billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, had agreed terms of the £2.5bn takeover of the club, with a further £1.75bn committed to the stadium over the next 10 years.
Todd Boehly endured an array of emotions during Chelsea's thrilling 2-2 draw with Wolves
Conor Coady crashed home a header in the 97th minute to leave the Blues' new owner stunned
Jonathan Goldstein, the London property developer and Spurs fan, will also be an investor. Danny Finkelstein, Times Columnist, House of Lords member and former advisor to David Cameron, will be on the board with Barbara Charone, legendary London music executive.
The Roman Abramovich era is officially drawing to a close. Something new is upon us and for some, that change will be scary, with 60 per cent owned by private equity firm Clearlake, run by billionaires Jose E Feliciano and Behdad Eghbali. We are told that Clearlake are happy to take a back seat and let Boehly run the show and he certainly has been driver of this bid. And it is his force of personality the club will need in the coming days.
Even now though the waiting is not quite over. The Premier League have already assessed him and his partners regarding the owners’ and directors’ test. There are no issues anticipated and he should get the green light this week. But the UK Government still have to amend the terms of licence under which Chelsea are operating, given that all other Abramovich businesses are sanctioned and frozen.
Boehly placed his head in his hands in the stands at Stamford Bridge after the late equaliser
Not a penny will be allowed to feed back to Abramovich. He will also not be allowed to set some aside for a foundation that is linked to him. The issue of the £1.6bn loan, its tax status and whether it can be written off, will be resolved by freezing that amount of the £2.5bn sale price in an account until those legalities can be resolved. £0.9bn in theory will be available for charitable causes immediately. But the Treasury are not going to clear such a fraught transaction without being clear the money cannot be traced back to Abramovich.
The situations of chairman Bruce Buck and managing director Marina Granovskaia also will be intriguing. Here, Buck joined Boehly in his private box at half-time and spent five minutes talking to him. The chairman is expected to stay on initially. The Government will not object to that, but it will be up to Boehly
