Kieran Maguire demands Chelsea transparency after ‘problematic’ reveal
There needs to be more transparency between Chelsea and ‘problematic’ co-owners Clearlake Capital.
That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the private nature of Chelsea’s US co-owners.
As reported by Sky News, private equity firm Clearlake Capital owns approximately 60 per cent of the shares at Chelsea following the £4.25bn takeover of the club, with Todd Boehly’s consortium owning the other 40 per cent.
However, a SportBusiness report published last Wednesday (10 May) found that the rights-holders at Chelsea were unable to identify the origin of Clearlake’s investment.
When asked about the identity of investors, Chelsea insisted that it was “all private information”, while the Premier League said that the Owner’s and Director’s Test process was “strictly confidential”.
The situation was described as “absolutely problematic” by Alex Phillips – the former head of governance and compliance at Uefa.
Maguire believes the Premier League needs to be able to hold owners and investors responsible when running a club and therefore more information needs to be disclosed.
“The whole idea behind private equity is that it’s private, so you can understand it from an investor’s point of view,” Maguire told Football Insider.
“But anybody that has a material stake in the business, I think that warrants disclosure from the perspective of the Premier League.
“The Premier League have the desire to have an element of scrutiny for owners and major investors so that they can be held responsible.
“There certainly is a need for more transparency.“
In other news, Revealed: The first three Chelsea stars set to leave when Pochettino takes over