The joint owner of Chelsea Football Club has joined forces with one of his fellow board members to bid for the most valuable team in England cricket’s 100 competition.
Todd Bohle is backing a bid led by Jonathan Goldstein, the British property tycoon, in a bid for a major stake in London Spirit, the Lords-based franchise, Sky News has learned.
The bid represents the latest move by Mr Buhli, the billionaire financier, to break up Britain’s sporting elite, following his takeover of Chelsea in 2022 alongside Behdad Eghbali, the founder of Clearlake Capital.
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Recent reports suggest that the pair have fallen out and are looking for ways to buy each other out of the club.
Bohle’s interest in the London Spirit franchise puts him and Goldstein on a shortlist of a handful of suitors for at least a 49% stake.
Todd Buhle (center) at a Chelsea match in September. File image: PA
Other contenders to buy the interest as part of a process run by the England and Wales Cricket Board are Sanjeev Goenka, the Indian billionaire who owns the Lucknow Super Giants team in the Indian Premier League (IPL); sources said this weekend. Owners Chennai Super Kings of IPL; The very rich Ambani family in India; And perhaps members of the Glazer family, which holds the largest stake in Manchester United Football Club.
The London Spirit are expected to fetch the highest price of the eight teams being auctioned, with one of Chelsea’s lenders, Ares Management, planning to buy a stake in the Oval Invincibles, Sky News revealed on Friday.
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CVC Capital Partners, one of the biggest backers of global sport with stakes in the men’s professional tennis tour and rugby union’s Six Nations Championship, is also making a bid for the Oval Invincibles.
CVC has also made offers for two other franchises, insiders said.
In total, around 35 bids are said to have been shortlisted for the eight teams, with the host counties involved able to decide whether to offload part of their 51% stake in order to give new investors control of the franchise.
These 35 proposals are said to have come in turn from 15 separate groups of investors.
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The combined teams are understood to have been valued at more than £600m in the first round of the auction, with proceeds spread across the recreational game, the 18 top-flight counties and the MCC, which owns Lords.
The eight home stadiums play home to teams including Northern Superchargers, Manchester Originals and Southern Brave.
A larger-than-expected windfall from the operation could provide a financial lifeline to a number of cash-strapped counties, with a portion of the proceeds potentially being used to pay down debt.
However, concerns have been raised that the windfall from the 100 auction will not deliver a meaningful improvement in the provinces’ long-term financial sustainability.
The outcome of the auction, which will become clear in the coming months, is also likely to intensify other searching questions about the future of cricket, as the game’s Test format struggles for international commercial relevance against shorter-length competition.
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The Hundred Auction is being managed by the Raine Group, which also oversaw the sale of Chelsea to Mr Boehly and Mr Eghbali two years ago after the government imposed sanctions on Roman Abramovich.
Goldstein, the CVC and the European Central Bank declined to comment on the process.