Chelsea already have multi-club model as Boehly outfoxes Premier League lawmakers AGAIN

Robin Bairner

• 19 Jun 2023 15:45 BST
• 4 min read

When Todd Boehly and his Clearlake Capital partners took over Chelsea a little over a year ago, it was made clear that part of their investment plan was to build a multi-club model to provide support for the Stamford Bridge side.

Manchester City have become the model for others to follow, with the Abu Dhabi-owned club having swept to a treble in 2022/23.

The advantages of having more than one club to support the ‘main project’ are clear. Young players can be parked at these sides in order to circumvent loan regulations and Financial Fair Play. City would also argue it provides additional first-team opportunities for players and the chance for a team to build a homogenous style of play. In essence, Man City has become a super project and the blueprint for their rivals.

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Boehly, though, has already proven himself to be an operator who thinks outside the box. By signing players to lengthy contracts of six, seven or eight years, he successfully manipulated FFP regulations to his own ends over his first two transfer windows.

Such was the impact that the new Chelsea figurehead had, there are discussions afoot as to how these laws might be more robust going forward.

There was a sense that Boely’s project might crumble given Chelsea’s transfer failures over the course of the last year. They have been lumbered with underperforming players on loan deals.

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But just as City’s Kevin De Bruyne can spot the smallest gap in a back four to thread a through pass to Erling Haaland, Boehly is proving himself an expert exploiter of loopholes.

Now he has called his friends in Saudi Arabia, and more specifically at the country’s PIF to help.

Are Chelsea owned by Saudi Arabia’s PIF?

The relationship between Boelhy and Saudi Arabia’s PIF is opaque.

According to a report in the Daily Mail from August 2022, the PIF is the majority shareholder in Clearlake Capital, which owns a 60% majority stake in Chelsea. The Blues denied that it had any input in the takeover and, therefore, no conflict of interest.

The Premier League, meanwhile, do not need to look into the source of the funds for the private equity stake in Chelsea, so, therefore, there has been no wrongdoing.

Chelsea’s relationship with PIF, regardless of how formal, will be exploited to help the club offload unwanted, expensive stars this summer under the guise of bolstering the Saudi Pro League.

PIF has 75% stakes in Saudi Pro League clubs Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli and Al-Hilal, effectively ensuring a monopoly in the top-flight. Crucially for Chelsea, though, the PIF can afford to buy out the players that no one else wants or can afford.

Hakim Ziyech and Kalidou Koulibaly fall into this category, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and goalkeeper Edouard Mendy may also follow suit. Selling these players to European or Premier League rivals would have proven problematic.

The case of N’Golo Kante is a little different as he is out of contract and a free agent, while Romelu Lukaku is set to turn down the Saudi Pro League’s overtures, showing that the setup is not infallible.

Chelsea may not have the sophisticated multi-club model of Manchester City yet, but their relationship with PIF means that, informally at least, Boehly has already installed an enviable level of support from elsewhere.