Chelsea hatch controversial plan to add another club to Boehly's empire

Tom Weber

• Updated: 28 Dec 2023 09:38 GMT
• 3 min read

Argentina's controversial new president Javier Milei has hinted at investment from Todd Boehly's BlueCo in a local club.

The country's freshly-elected self-described anarcho-capitalist president is desperately scrambling to secure outside investment in hopes of fixing Argentina's ailing economy. Milei, who rose to prominence via YouTube and TikTok, has only been in office for a few weeks but has already sparked mass protests in Buenos Aires and elsewhere with his latest decree that allows employers to pay workers in milk, meat and bitcoin instead of money.

In a recent interview, he hinted at changing the legal structure of Argentine football clubs, turning them from non-profit organisations into Public Limited Sports Companies that can be acquired by outside investors. During that interview, he mentioned Chelsea as one of the clubs supposedly interested in pumping money into Argentine football.

"There are many investments waiting, there are many international football clubs that want to invest in Argentina," he told La Nacion. "There is a lot of business to be done with Argentina. Investments could be worth more than $1 billion in a very short period of time. As soon as the decree came out, Chelsea were interested in investing in Argentina."

Chelsea to add another club?

Only time will tell if there is anything to Milei's claims, but it would not come as a shock if Chelsea were to invest in an Argentinian club. Todd Boehly and BlueCo added Ligue 1 side RC Strasbourg to their fledgling footballing empire in the summer and there were also rumours of interest in a Portuguese club.

Under Boehly, Chelsea's transfer policy has been to unearth and snap up some of the world's brightest talents and Argentina is a prolific producer of wonderkids, as illustrated by the Blues' concrete interest in signing Claudio Echeverri, who appears to be Man City-bound.

Acquiring an Argentine side would allow BlueCo to keep local talent in a familiar environment and to be able to control their fate every step of the way. It would also expand their scouting network. There are clear benefits to buying an Argentine club, though whether investing at a time of such uncertainty is a shrewd move remains to be seen.