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 English cricket’s Hundred competition.
Sky News has learnt that Todd Boehly is backing a bid spearheaded by Jonathan Goldstein, a British property entrepreneur, in an offer for a large stake in London Spirit, the Lords-based franchise.
The bid represents the latest move by Mr Boehly, a billionaire financier, to gatecrash the British sporting elite, following his takeover of Chelsea in 2022 alongside Behdad Eghabli, the founder of Clearlake Capital.
Read more: Chelsea FC lender Ares wants to bowl over Oval Hundred franchise
Recent reports suggest the pair have fallen out and are looking at ways to buy each other out of the club.
Mr Boehly’s interest in the London Spirit franchise puts him and Mr Goldstein on a shortlist of a handful of bidders for – at least – a 49% stake in it.
Sources said this weekend that the other contenders to buy the interest as part of a process run by the England and Wales Cricket Board were Sanjiv Goenka, an Indian billionaire who owns the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Lucknow Super Giants; the owners of the IPL’s Chennai Super Kings; India’s ultra-wealthy Ambani family; and possibly members of the Glazer family, which retains the largest stake in Manchester United Football Club.
The London Spirit franchise is expected to command the highest price of the eight teams being auctioned, with one of Chelsea’s lenders, Ares Management, plotting the purchase of a stake in the Oval Invincibles, Sky News revealed on Friday.
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