Todd Boehly has played down boardroom tensions at Chelsea but refused to guarantee the same ownership structure will remain in place next year.
Boehly also shrugged off recent fan criticism and defended his recruitment strategy, saying you cannot buy a top striker by going into a “grocery store”.
Appearing at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit, the American businessman also urged the Premier League to consider a multi-billion global Netflix-style TV rights deal.
Boehly was speaking in the same week that hundreds of Chelsea fans turned on him and Clearlake Capital with a protest outside Stamford Bridge before their match against Southampton. Criticism, he said in response, was “par for the course” in sporting ownership.
Telegraph Sport has reported in recent months how Boehly and Clearlake, who bought Chelsea together in 2022 from Roman Abramovich, are prepared to buy each other out.
Boehly attempted to play down any suggestions of any significant rifts with Behdad Eghbali and Jose E Feliciano, who own Clearlake.
However, the American billionaire, who also has a stake in the LA Dodgers, gave a cautious answer when asked whether the same ownership structure will still be in place next year.
“Listen, I can’t predict the future,” he said with a wry smile. “If I could, I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”
When asked earlier to look back on his decision to buy Chelsea, he added: “I don’t look in the rearview mirror.”
Clearlake has been adamant privately it will not sell any of its 61.5 per cent stake and will not allow Chelsea to go up for auction again.
However, Telegraph Sport previously reported how Boehly believes he can quickly raise more than £2.5 billion to make an offer to Clearlake that would also give the company, Chelsea’s majority shareholder, a profit on its initial investment.
Speaking at the FT summit, Boehly set out his vision for the league boosting revenues. He suggested a potential overhaul in how clubs accrue shares of the top tier and also raised the prospect of the league taking a risk and looking at TV models in American sport. Major League Soccer, for instance, now has a deal with Apple TV.
“I think that’s where we are headed,” he said of a global rights deal. “In order to do it the owners have to take an element of risk. If you really think about it, you could unlock a global media platform because there’s nothing like this at the moment.
“It’s a long conversation. How do we think about the media rights going forward? They are on it already. But I look at the Super Bowl and there’s nothing else like the Super Bowl and every year it starts earlier and earlier.”
In his defence of the team’s recruitment strategy, Boehly added: “Strikers are hard to find, right? You don’t go into the grocery store and come in and get a striker with an amazing skill set. Then you also have to have a fantastic mentality.”
On fan scrutiny, he added: “The reality is the sooner you learn you’re not going to keep all people happy all the time, freedom shows up,” he said.
“You’re trying to get on a plan, execute a plan, realise things aren’t linear and if you’re in the right direction you feel better. The trend is in the right direction and that’s the thing that really matters. In June it’ll be three years, that’s not a lot of time. Especially in an industry where there’s so little downtime.”
