It was inevitable: a club looking to trim its bloated squad doing business with a new super league throwing money around as if it grew on trees.
Yet the links between Chelsea and the Saudi Pro League are, again, amplifying questions around the complex web of billionaire businessmen and state investment vehicles that are assuming greater control of the sport.
Earlier this month it was announced that four of the biggest Saudi clubs were being taken over by the Public Investment Fund, who are mostly known as Newcastle's majority owners and the recently installed kings of golf.
Since then the quartet of clubs have been linked with dozens of star names. And some of them are even signing. Karim Benzema has joined Cristiano Ronaldo in what was already the Gulf region's strongest domestic competition, Ruben Neves has agreed a deal and N’Golo Kante is set to move once he becomes a free agent at the end of the month.
Yet Kante, who had been offered new terms at Chelsea only to find far more lucrative options available, is only the tip of the iceberg.
Senegalese duo Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly plus Moroccan winger Hakim Ziyech, who was set to join Paris Saint-Germain in January only for paperwork to become an issue, are all said to be closing in on deals to join one of the clubs in Saudi. Romelu Lukaku , meanwhile, has said no to a separate offer.
The base concept of talented players - who in the case of these particularly stars are in uncertain positions at their current club under new head coach Mauricio Pochettino - looking to be moved on is nothing new. Nor is the idea of them being tempted by mega money available in a country where they will be treated like kings.
But there is another layer of intrigue here: Chelsea’s majority owners, the private equity firm Clearlake Capital, count PIF among one of their big investors. And to what degree is a source of mystery because the beauty of private equity is the privacy afforded to those pumping in money.
Clearlake manages £60billion of assets on behalf of more than 300 different investors, as first reported by the Daily Mail, and no investor holds more than a five percent stake. Sources say they have made more than 400 transactions across six continents. In essence, their reach is very wide.
PIF have also put money into a number of different private equity firms and the Premier League was satisfied that no conflict of interest existed between the owners of Chelsea and Newcastle when the former’s takeover was confirmed just over 12 months ago. The vetting process, sources say, was thorough.
But Clearlake, whose stake in Chelsea stands at 60 percent, still has an evident working relationship with the same sovereign wealth fund now attempting to buy millions worth of assets from the Stamford Bridge club. That is indisputable.
Clearlake will not comment on PIF’s investment and are under no obligation to do so but fresh questions are being asked over the transparency of such deals, especially when Chelsea are skirting a fine line with financial fair play rules. Sources indicate that this is all "purely transactional" and nothing untoward is taking place.
Yet the key question is what represents fair value for any of those players when the entire market has been distorted? There is no rule in place to decide how much a footballer is worth and rules around the fair value of sponsorship have only been recently introduced by the Premier League.
Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly has recently made a trip to Saudi Arabia and met with Al Hilal executives, while Pro League officials were yesterday in London discussing the deals for Mendy, Koulibaly and Ziyech.
The players deserve no blame for wanting to go, whatever the dubious moral debate, when their great grandkids are likely to be set up by inherited wealth. And despite the grey areas in which such business is being completed, no Premier League, UEFA or FIFA rules are being broken here.
Aleksander Ceferin, the UEFA president, has softened his stance significantly on multi-club ownership, for instance, while the Premier League last week waved through a deal that sees Newcastle unveil a new shirt sponsor that happens to also be owned by PIF. The fair value rules were put to the test and, despite clear questions, in the Premier League's mind this case study passed with flying colours.
In separate news they have blocked a deal for US broadcaster Paramount to put its logo on Chelsea shirts because the league has a TV contract with NBC. And instead they are now close to agreeing a deal with a gambling firm that has led the club's supporters' trust to write an open letter questioning the sensibility of carrying out such business.
FIFA’s stance remains one of maintaining its distance, viewing its role as being the global guardian of the game and considering itself to be above politics. The reality, of course, is that the opposite is true.
Equally, there is a sense that the horse has bolted with regards state influence and talk now focuses on how deep those tentacles can insert themselves into the fabric of the game. The Saudi Super League will look to repeatedly attract top-level, senior stars from European clubs. But how long will it be before the state funds are investing in the continent’s competitions directly? That is being viewed as the next step in the state takeover of football.
Mirror Football has contacted Chelsea, Clearlake Capital and PIF for comment.
