Chelsea owner Todd Boehly and his associates have completed a takeover deal for Ligue 1 outfit Strasbourg via BlueCo, the company which purchased the Blues from Roman Abramovich last year. Chelsea are known to have been pursuing a multi-club model since they were bought by the American billionaire and have made a start by taking over Strasbourg, who narrowly avoided relegation to Ligue 2 by just five points last season.
The deal was announced in the wake of staunch opposition from Strasbourg supporters, with some fans being pictured holding up a sign telling Boehly that he was not welcome after the news of the imminent takeover broke on Thursday. However, the 49-year-old and his business partners have promised to ‘preserve the heritage’ of the club while making the most of the opportunity to ‘share knowledge and expertise’.
BlueCo’s shareholders said in an official 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 working closely with Marc [Keller, Strasbourg president] and his management team to continue 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.”
Keller, meanwhile, added: “This is an important day for Racing. It’s something my shareholder friends and I have been thinking about for the past two years. We’ve built a club that’s healthy at every level and well managed.
“Although there was no financial urgency, we were aware that we had reached the ceiling of our model, and if we wanted to continue driving Racing forward and projecting it into a new dimension, we necessarily needed to be accompanied by a solid structure capable of supporting our development and our ambition.
“I am therefore delighted of the perspective to welcome a new strategic investor, with whom we would accelerate the club’s ambition to build the Racing of tomorrow.”
It would not be a surprise to see Chelsea sending their best young players on loan to Strasbourg in order to aid their progression over the coming years, with Boehly having already underlined his desire to build a multi-club network in the interests of youth development at Stamford Bridge.
“I think there’s different countries where there’s advantages to having a club, Red Bull have Salzburg and Leipzig in the Champions League,” explained Boehly at the SALT Conference in New York last year.
“I want to continue building out the footprint. I think there’s different countries where there’s advantages to having a club. We know people and human capital, we understand game plans and strategies. We’re not expecting to be the football experts to find the best talent, we are going to put those people in place.
“The challenge that Chelsea has, when you have 18, 19, 20-year-old superstars, you can loan them out to clubs but you put their development in someone else’s hands.”
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