Chelsea sale: Todd Boehly consortium won’t revisit Super League if they buy club
One of the members of the Todd Boehly-led bid to buy Chelsea has pledged that they would not revisit plans for a European Super League.
Barbara Charone, a music industry publicist and long-time Blues fan, is in line to offer supporter representation on the board if Boehly’s consortium wins the race to buy the Premier League club from sanctioned owner Roman Abramovich.
Chelsea were among 12 clubs that initially signed up to a closed European Super League last year.
“I’m all for the football pyramid,” Charone told The Telegraph. “People going up, people going down – everyone having a chance.
“What good is football if you don’t have faith? The whole of football is built on faith. It’s not just about three points.
“I think involving the fans is really key. And I thought it was really great that Chelsea fans were the first to really demonstrate last year outside the ground when it happened, and force the complete about-turn.”
American Boehly, who owns stakes in baseball’s LA Dodgers and NBA team the LA Lakers, is spearheading one of four bids for Chelsea known to be shortlisted by the Raine Group, the US bank tasked with selling the club.
Other bidders include a consortium led by former British Airways chairman Sir Martin Broughton, and two more American groups, led by the Chicago Cubs-owning Ricketts family and Boston Celtics owner Stephen Pagliuca respectively.
The Raine Group is expected to examine final offers next week with a view to presenting a preferred bidder to the UK government by 18 April.
Chelsea must seek permission from the government to go ahead with a sale, following the sanctioning of Abramovich for his links to Russia and its premier Vladimir Putin.
Other members of the Boehly bid include Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss and investment company Clearlake Capital.