Furious Chelsea fans have railed against the club’s ownership in a protest outside Stamford Bridge ahead of a key Premier League game against league strugglers Southampton
Chelsea fans protested outside the club’s home ground ahead of their home Premier League fixture against Southampton. Fans say they are protesting the decision taken by the club’s owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital – a consortium known as ‘BlueCo’ – and their appointment of Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley as sporting directors.
In videos posted to social media, supporters of the Blues could be seen marching near to Stamford Bridge holding a banner directed at the club’s ownership saying “you’re destroying our club”.
BBC Sport reported that there was a police presence at the march, but it remained peaceful and there were no incidents of violence.
Chelsea reporter for The Athletic Liam Twomey said on the social media app BlueSky that the protest had become “big enough” to block the Fulham Road close to the stadium.
Chants in support of former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich could be heard.
The London football club’s former owner sold Chelsea after he was sanctioned in 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier the same year.
Under a consortium led by American American businessman Todd Boehly, the twice Champions League winners have seen a £1.3 billion investment into the club, but supporters say they are frustrated with what they see as a lack of communication and player recruitment.
Discontent has swelled as the Blues continue to undergo poor form. Enzo Maresca’s men are in seventh position in the Premier League and are just one point off the Champions League places, but have won just two out of their last 10 league matches.
Ahead of the protest, an unnamed organiser told football.london that “the protest is about change and hopefully causing the owners to have pressure applied on them by their investors as it will hurt their public image”.
They added: “The endgame is change the model or sell up. Also, their terrible treatment of staff, players and stripping of all of the club’s former assets.”
“The protest will be a peaceful one with lots of fans and a few banners so that the fans can have their voices heard by the club. As of this moment, the protest will not continue inside the ground. There are already a few hundred [fans on board] but we expect these numbers to rise considerably before Monday.
“We want to highlight what the American ownership is doing to kill football here in the UK with exploitation and money being their priority.”
The Daily Star has approached Chelsea for comment.