Clearlake aim to buy Todd Boehly’s veto vote – but pride could leave Chelsea paralysed in stalemate | OneFootball

Battle lines are being drawn across West London as the two largest groups of Chelsea’s ownership prepare to wrestle for control of the club’s future.

What began as a story from Bloomberg at the weekend is now being covered everywhere, with new angles and briefs coming out almost hourly. After the Athletic’s deep dive this morning, Jacob Steinberg at the Guardian has come out this evening with another big look at the explosive evens behind the scenes.

The situation is that Todd Boehly and his crew don’t want to be bossed around by Behdad Eghbali and his Clearlake Capital crew. The latter own more of the club, but the former has to sign off on any major decisions. Both want full control, but neither wants to let go of their half.

Steinberg claims that Clearlake are “very sceptical” that Boehly can put together the sort of funding required to buy them out, and are “adamant” they have no plans to sell. They want him to “accept changes to the club’s governance… in exchange for economic concessions” – i.e. take a fat cheque to relinquish his veto.

What happens next

All of these pieces are coming from different angles, and are clearly being informed by the different sides in the dispute, but all ultimately lead to the same conclusion – there’s nothing either side can do to force the other out. Both are determined to stay, and so a damaging stalemate is the most likely possible outcome.

That stalemate can only be broken by a vast offer from one party to the other. There’s no predicting what part pride will play in all this either. Very rich men tend to have very big egos, and unless they can walk away from the deal feeling like they won it, they won’t be going anywhere.