As the modern age of football progresses through various iterations of business models, multi-club ownership has become increasingly popular.
While City Football Group are the leaders in that regard, BlueCo are not far behind. Currently the owners of both Premier League side Chelsea and Ligue 1 outfit Strasbourg, BlueCo have ruffled feathers by making it clear where the two clubs stand within their structure.
Thus, when reports emerged in mid-August that Brighton & Hove Albion are nearing a deal to sell midfielder Julio Enciso to BlueCo, it had many fans confused. Which club was buying the 21-year-old? Where will he be playing? Whose books will be taking the hit?
With this potentially unprecedented transfer seemingly close to a conclusion, The Sporting News explains the situation and compiles all the available information to make sense of what exactly is taking place.
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Who are BlueCo? Chelsea ownership under Todd Boehly explained
BlueCo is the consortium, or ownership group, which purchased Chelsea FC from Roman Abramovich in 2022.
The major partners that make up BlueCo are Todd Boehly, Clearlake Capital (helmed by Behdad Eghbali), Mark Walter, and Hansjorg Wyss.
With Abramovich, a Russian oligarch, forced to sell the club after being sanctioned by the UK government in the early days of the Ukraine invasion, BlueCo was formed to complete the deal for Chelsea.
They bought the club for a reported £4.25 billion (€4.91b / $5.70b) in a transaction that was approved by UK authorities and sent to a frozen account that would be distributed to victims of the Ukraine war. Additionally, the consortium agreed to commit £1.75 billion (€2.02b / $2.35b) towards a number of club improvements, including the stadium Stamford Bridge, the academy, the women’s team, and other sectors.
Boehly, an American and the most well-known individual in the group, assumed the role of chairman at Chelsea at the time of the acquisition. He runs investment holding company Eldridge Industries and is estimated to be worth approximately $8.5 billion. Boehly also owns 20% of the Los Angeles Dodgers, one of the most prominent Major League Baseball franchises.
Clearlake Capital is an American private equity firm founded in part by Eghbali. Born in Iran, Eghbali moved to the U.S. when he was a child, and is worth an estimated $4.5 billion.
Walter is CEO of American financial services firm Guggenheim Partners, where he met Boehly who worked for Guggenheim for a number of years. He is the majority owner of the LA Dodgers, as well as NBA giants the LA Lakers, and WNBA franchise the LA Sparks. Walter is worth an estimated $6.2 billion.
Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss founded and ran Synthes, a medical device manufacturer, before retiring and selling the company in 2012 to Johnson & Johnson. Wyss is the oldest member of the consortium in his late 80s, and is worth an estimated $12.7 billion.
What other clubs does BlueCo own?
BlueCo also owns French club RC Strasbourg Alsace, commonly referred to simply as Strasbourg.
The consortium purchased close to 100% ownership of Strasbourg in June of 2023, about 17 months after buying Chelsea, for a reported €75 million.
The takeover marked the consortium’s first foray into multi-club ownership, which has become simultaneously a popular and problematic model in which more and more ownership groups are involving themselves.
Why are Strasbourg fans angry with BlueCo?
Regardless of where their club resides in the overall national and global pecking order, fanbases want to feel like their executives are trying to obtain the best possible players available to them in an effort to climb the pyramid.
On the flip side, no club’s fanbase likes to be used as a stepping stone. Yet that is exactly how Strasbourg fans feel as part of BlueCo’s structural model.
BlueCo have set up a system that often sends Strasbourg the players who are unable to break into the Chelsea first team, whether because they’ve failed to impress or require further development. Additionally, Strasbourg can sometimes serve as a sort of financial bailout for Chelsea when buying players, which can appear as if BlueCo are selling assets to themselves.
This is exactly the point made by Strasbourg’s ultras, known as Ultra Boys 90, in a statement this summer, presented as an open letter to BlueCo.
“The transfer window carried out so far proves, to the point of absurdity, that Strasbourg is no longer a club that makes decisions in its own best interests. On the contrary, we are witnessing a headlong rush where Chelsea is leading the way to the detriment of our club’s own independence.
“Multi-club ownership is a destructive logic that transforms historic clubs into interchangeable parts of a globalized portfolio, and this system is starting to become widespread.”
The ultras claimed that Behdad Eghbali promised to meet with the supporter group in a formal setting before the end of June — a promise they say was not kept. Thus, the ultras have begun protesting BlueCo by sitting in silence for the first 15 minute of matches before resuming their usual full-throated chorus the rest of the way. The protest, they hope, allows them to make a noticeable silence before supporting the club the rest of the match to indicate they still have supporting the team at the top of their priority list.
Are Chelsea or Strasbourg buying Julio Enciso?
Eyes were raised when reports in mid-August claimed that BlueCo had reached an agreement to purchase Julio Enciso from Brighton for around £14 million (€16.2m / $18.8m).
Yes, you read that correctly. BlueCo had reached a deal — not Chelsea, not Strasbourg, but the ownership group itself.
So… how is that working exactly? According to Kieran Gill of the Daily Mail, few people actually know. Gill writes that one source he spoke to at Brighton “was not entirely sure” to whom they were selling Enciso. However, the belief is that he will likely be sold to Strasbourg with some eye towards eventually moving to Chelsea.
Gill writes that FIFA does not keep a watchful eye on clubs within a multi-club ownership structure when it comes to deals for fair market value, so an eventual transaction between Strasbourg and Chelsea for Enciso would not be breaching any FIFA rules. However, the Premier League apparently does scrutinise such transactions.
