Chelsea CEO Guy Laurence to step down — report

Guy Laurence was once described as “the most important person at Chelsea you’ve never heard of”, which, if you’re a Chelsea fan — and if you’re not, why are you reading this? — does narrow the field down quite a bit, but in any case, he’s now set to be not at Chelsea anymore.

According to Nizaar Kinsella’s exclusive at Goal, Laurence will be stepping down as soon as the Boehly takeover is officially official and completed, which should be (announced) any minute now. Apparenly this decision was made before the ownership change began, but Laurence has stayed on to ensure a smooth transition.

Laurence, a former CEO at Rogers Communications in Canada and at Vodafone UK, was appointed Chelsea CEO in February 2018, and he’s been in charge of the day-to-day business and commercial operations at the club since. Under his guidance, the club’s turnover has grown 20 per cent, from £360m to £435m, and that despite a two-year pandemic putting the brakes on a lot of revenue streams.

Kinsella’s report does not name a successor, though Boehly himself is set to take charge of day-to-day operations on day one. Presumably, we will eventually appoint someone as the new CEO of “Chelsea FC Holdings Limited” in due course.