Chelsea's majority owners, Clearlake Capital, are closing in on a deal to buy out co-owners Todd Boehly and Mark Walter, in a move that would value the club at around £5bn and hand Clearlake full control. The talks, which had been on and off for two years, gathered pace last month after Walter sought to raise funds to pay insurers following a US federal investigation into alleged tax fraud, prompting him to accelerate a sale that would still leave him with a healthy profit on his original investment.

Walter, Boehly and Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss each hold 12.8% of Chelsea, following the group's joint £2.5bn purchase of the club from Roman Abramovich four years ago alongside Clearlake, which retains a 61.5% stake and already runs day-to-day operations under Behdad Eghbali. Ownership rules give Clearlake first option on any sale, and completing the buyout is expected to ease tensions between Eghbali and Boehly, notably over Chelsea's stadium plans. Walter is also under US Department of Justice scrutiny over $21bn in loans allegedly hidden from insurance regulators, having recently sold his 85% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers for about £9bn to help cover the fallout, though his firm insists it is not offloading assets at "fire sale" prices.