Inside Chelsea boardroom civil war, ex-chairman warns of power-sharing disaster

CHELSEA’S £4billion boardroom battle could drive a wedge through the club’s controversial policy on transfers.

And former chairman Ken Bates reckons this power-sharing ‘committee’ is a recipe for disaster.

Blues’ co-controlling owners Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly are at loggerheads and want to buy each other out.

Their professional relationship has deteriorated to a point where they can no longer work together.

Bates, 92, said: “Football is not the sport I once knew and loved. Clubs are now either an investment or among a group of investments. Chelsea is included in that.

“I wouldn’t know how good a committee is or whether they can work because I only ever worked in committees of one.

“When you get large groups or committees of people trying to work together, you usually end up with two or three people sitting around doodling on a notepad.”

Eghbali and his pals from Clearlake Capital on one side of the fence own a 61.5 per cent majority share of Chelsea. Rival Boehly and his allies own 38.5 per cent.

Chairman Boehly still has to sign off on all major decisions and that is where the sticking point arises if the stand-off deepens.

Chelsea signed 11 players in the summer and Boehly gave the nod to them all, despite being in the minority in terms of shareholding.

He also gave the green light to the appointment of new head coach Enzo Maresca in June.

But the two Americans have differences of opinion on how to do business and disagreements over spending could cause huge problems to the world’s busiest club in the transfer market.

Bates was the combative chairman at Stamford Bridge for more than 20 years until selling the club to Roman Abramovich in 2003.

Boehly and Eghbali have spent more than £1.2bn on new players since buying out the Russian in May 2022.

The club have shipped some big names out of the dressing room during that time, including £325,000-a-week £47.5million winger Raheem Sterling, who joined Arsenal on loan last month.

The board has also pushed through the £76.6m sale of two hotels on the grounds of Stamford Bridge to parent company BlueCo, easing the recent pressure on overspending.

Eghbali will not sell his stake to Boehly and is ready to dig his heels in as the tussle for overall control of the West London club ramps up.

But the Iran-born businessman does not want a war with his partner turned rival.

Chelsea were run for years by sole trader Abramovich who made unanimous decisions.

But sanctions placed on the oligarch by the UK Government forced him into an emergency sale of the club.

Boehly joined forces with Clearlake Capital investment firm to raise £2.5bn to buy Blues with a further £1.75bn promised for investment.

Chelsea finished sixth in the Premier League last season and Maresca is the fourth full-time manager since they bought out Abramovich.