Chelsea confirm new Board, name Todd Boehly interim sporting director replacing Marina Granovskaia

The ownership transition from Roman Abramovich to the Boehly-Clearlake consortium is now truly complete, with Chelsea confirming the new eight-member Board of Directors this morning, led by Todd Boehly himself, who will serve as Chairman replacing Bruce Buck. Buck stepped down officially earlier this week.

The other members of the Board include Behdad Eghbali and James Pade of Clearlake (but not José Feliciano), Mark Walter of the LA Dodgers, Hansjörg Wyss who first revealed this consortium’s interest in buying Chelsea, as well Barbara Charone and Lord Daniel Finkelstein (who should have the PR and politicking angles well covered). The one surprise name is Jonathan Goldstein, who’s expected to be largely responsible for the stadium rebuild project — hopefully he does a good job and we don’t have to worry about him being a Spurs fan!

The announcement also confirms that Marina Granovskaia will be stepping down, though she “will remain available to Boehly and the Club for the duration of the current transfer window, to the extent required to support the transition” — though it’s unclear just how much support we will actually require.

“We thank Marina for her many years of excellent service to the Club and wish her all the best in her future ventures.”

-Todd Boehly; source: Chelsea FC

Boehly will serve as “interim sporting director” until the club can find someone to fill the position on a full-time basis (i.e. an actual sporting director). Presumably we will actually hire an actual sporting director this time, unlike after the departure of Michael Emenalo, when Granovskaia simply just assumed control.

There is no word on Petr Čech’s future or role in the announcement, but hopefully he will remain in at least his current advisory position. Maybe he could be elevated to sporting director now?