Strasbourg fans have reacted furiously after their club was bought by Chelsea‘s owners.
It was confirmed this week that Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, the private equity firm that effectively owns the west London club, have purchased a majority stake in the French side but the idea has not gone down well with all of the Ligue 1 club’s fans. Some took to the streets holding banners declaring: “Boehly not welcome”.
Boehly is thought to be pursuing other clubs around the world to develop a network that aids recruitment and development of players for Chelsea.
The multi-club ownership model has been pioneered by Manchester City, whose owners have placed the Treble-winners at the top of a vast tree of clubs spanning several continents under the City Football Group umbrella. CFG started building their multi-club system a decade ago.
But it has not always been welcomed by supporters of those clubs bought to benefit a more lucrative club in a different country. City were set to purchase a stake in NAC Breda until supporters of the Dutch side protested the proposal and it was shelved.
A group of NAC Breda fans even travelled to England to erect banners at City’s Etihad Stadium stating, “Stay out of our territory, NAC is not a City Group story.”
These sentiments have been echoed by Strasbourg fans who are angry at becoming a club that will feed into and support Chelsea’s wider plans. In a statement released by BlueCo – the company set up to own Chelsea – the purchase of Strasbourg, for around £64m, was described as a “strategic investment”.
At a conference last year, Boehly revealed his interest in buying another side in a competitive league to help develop Chelsea’s young players.
“We’ve talked about having a multi-club model. I would love to continue to build out the footprint,” the American billionaire said. “There are different countries where there are advantages to having a club.
“Our goal is to ensure pathways for our young stars to get on to the Chelsea pitch while getting them real game time. To do that is through another club in a really competitive league in Europe.”
In general, the various rules of football’s stakeholders have permitted multi-club ownership provided two clubs under the same ownership do not compete in the same competition. Yet even that stance is under consideration to be relaxed by Uefa.
“There is more and more interest for this multi-club ownership and we shouldn’t just say no [to] the investments, and for multi-club ownership,” Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said recently. “But we have to see what kind of rules we set in that case, because the rules have to be strict.”
But Uefa sources do not expect the regulations to be updated imminently and as it stands Strasbourg and Chelsea would still not be able to compete in the same European competition. The issue is currently being looked at by the governing body with any changes possibly in place by the start of the 2024/25 season.
After the Strasbourg takeover was announced BlueCo said in a statement: “It is an honour for us to be part of this historic club. We are committed to preserving the heritage of Racing and are focused on [continuing] the excellent work they have been doing.
“This strategic investment would further our presence in European football, alongside our ownership of Chelsea. We believe it would create huge opportunities to share knowledge and expertise.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/o7wWhe2
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