Who are Chelsea’s prospective new owners and what issues do they face?

Who is behind the consortium?

The group’s move came when the 86-year-old Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss went public with his interest in buying Chelsea from Roman Abramovich. Wyss said he was working with other investors and it soon transpired that the figure fronting the bid was Todd Boehly, an American who part-owns the LA Dodgers baseball team. Boehly, who co-founded Eldridge Industries, is worth an estimated $4.5bn and his interest in Chelsea has not come out of nowhere: he had a bid rejected by Abramovich in 2019.

Nothing has been left to chance this time and Boehly has been chosen as the preferred bidder for Chelsea despite a late bid from Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Investors include Jonathan Goldstein, a British businessman who is the CEO of Cain International and a Tottenham fan, and Boehly’s fellow Dodgers owner Mark Walter. There is also backing from the US investment firm Clearlake Capital. Danny Finkelstein, a Tory peer and Times columnist, and Barbara Charone, a celebrity publicist, will become non-executive directors if the deal goes through. The consortium has received advice from Robey Warshaw, where the former chancellor George Osborne works.

It is anticipated that Boehly would be the most influential figure in the running of Chelsea, with Wyss more in the background. Boehly has a long history of working with Goldstein, a lawyer who has been a major player in the property world, and with Walter.

What has Boehly done at the Dodgers?

It seemed that Stan Kroenke was going to buy the Dodgers for £900m 10 years ago, only for Boehly’s group to stun the Arsenal owner by bidding £1.3bn for the franchise. It was a huge statement of intent and Boehly, who studied at the London School of Economics and is a part-owner of