Todd Boehly provided assurances to the Premier League that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund did not form part of Chelsea’s ownership structure when he led the club’s takeover last year.
Questions have been raised about purported links between PIF, which owns four Saudi Pro League clubs, and Chelsea with a flurry of players set to leave the west London club for the Gulf state.
It has been reported that PIF has investments in Clearlake Capital, the private equity firm with a majority stake in Chelsea. Chelsea have denied PIF has any direct involvement in the club.
i has learned that the Premier League sought – and received – assurances from Chelsea’s new owners that PIF would not be a part of any future investment during the sale process. And the league made clear that this could not happen in future.
After Boehly won the bidding process in May 2022 to purchase Chelsea from Roman Abramovich, who sold the club for £4.25bn after being sanctioned by the UK government for links to Russian president Vladimir Putin, the Premier League requested detailed information about the ownership structure. The American billionaire and his team provided evidence of their proposal before the takeover was cleared.
The Saudi PIF completed a £300m deal to buy Newcastle United in October 2021 and significant links to the Chelsea ownership would therefore be problematic.
Nonetheless, in recent weeks the flurry of potential deals between Chelsea and clubs in the Saudi Pro League – some owned by PIF – prompted calls for the Premier League to temporarily block transfers to Saudi Arabian clubs.
With Chelsea seeking to offload several players, after spending more than half a billion pounds on transfers since the Clearlake takeover and mindful of keeping within financial fair play rules, the club has held talks with SPL clubs about moving on N’Golo Kante, who confirmed a free transfer to PIF-owned Al-Ittihad on Wednesday, Kalidou Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy and Hakim Ziyech. Romelu Lukaku and Callum Hudson-Odoi are also thought to have been discussed.
“The Premier League should put an instant embargo on transfers to Saudi Arabia to ensure the integrity of the game isn’t being damaged,” influential pundit Gary Neville told the BBC on Wednesday. “Checks should be made on the appropriateness of the transactions.
“If it comes through that process, obviously transfers could open up again. But I do believe, at this moment in time, transfers should be halted until you look into the ownership structure at Chelsea and whether there are beneficial transfer dealings that are improper.”
i revealed on Wednesday that the Premier League has no intention of placing an embargo on transfers between its clubs and the SPL.
Sceptics have pointed out that Chelsea players are yet to move for large fees, with Kante leaving at the end of his contract and Ziyech expected to sign for Al-Nassr, also owned by the PIF, for around £8m — roughly £25m less than the Blues paid for the player in 2020.
A transfer that has been highlighted as sizeable is Ruben Neves’s £47m move from Wolves to Al Hilal, given he only had one year remaining on his contract.
Even so, the Premier League will scrutinise each of the transfers and are confident that its new Fair Market Value rules will be sufficient to regulate deals without the need to block transfers to a burgeoning market.
After Al-Nassr signed Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United in January, the SPL has ambitions to establish itself as one of the leading football leagues in the world. Its clubs are aiming to sign aging megastars — Karim Benzema recently agreed to leave Real Madrid for Al-Ittihad — as well as attracting players in their prime.
Spanish publication Marca reported that Bernardo Silva, who recently won the Treble with Manchester City, had been offered big money to move to an SPL club.
Leading pundit Jamie Carragher admitted he was concerned about the prospect of Silva leaving. “Bernardo Silva is in his peak years and has been one of the best players in Europe for the last five years!” Carragher tweeted. “I wasn’t worried about the Saudi League taking players in their 30s, a touch worried with players below the elite (Neves) but if this happens it feels like a game changer.
“Saudi have taken over golf, the big boxing fights and now they want to take over football! This sports washing needs to be stopped!”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/F8L3PKf
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