Shameful – Chelsea fans challenge Chelsea co-owner on reselling site he owns charging thousands for tickets | OneFootball

Last month (February 2025), we reported (see below) on the revelation that Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly, the main man/face of that club, also co-owns a company that profits from Premier League tickets getting resold for many thousands of pounds.

The shameless reselling company Vivid Seats, that Todd Boehly co-owns, is also on the official Premier League list of unauthorised ticketing websites.

Quite unbelievable, beyond shocking.

Todd Boehly personally profiting, as a co-owner, from the disgraceful reselling/touting of Premier League tickets for many many times face value, many thousands of pounds above the normal price.

Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly effectively using cash he makes from the reselling/touting site, to then help finance the shocking way Chelsea are financially allowed to run their club.

How can this be allowed to happen?

For Newcastle United fans (and Liverpool fans), Carabao Cup final tickets were like the proverbial gold dust. So difficult to get.

Yet the site that Todd Boehly partly owns, buyers from outside the UK could get as many as they wanted (See below).

Great now to see the Chelsea fans themselves challenging Todd Boehly for his shameless behaviour.

The Times report – Wednesday 26 March 2025:

Chelsea supporters have called on the Premier League to take action against the club’s chairman, Todd Boehly, for his ownership of a platform that resells match tickets for thousands of pounds more than their face value.

Boehly, a co-owner of Chelsea, is a director of and investor in Vivid Seats, an American website that allows users based outside of the UK to buy and sell tickets to concerts and sporting events, often at inflated prices.

Vivid Seats is listed by the Premier League as an “unauthorised ticket website”, and the league has urged fans to “exercise extreme caution” when dealing with the site. It is a criminal offence for an unauthorised person in the UK to sell a ticket for a designated football match, but it is not a crime in other countries.

An open letter from the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust to the Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Masters, says fans are up in arms about the issue, and that Vivid is listing a ticket for Liverpool’s final home fixture of the season for almost £20,000.

“As a director of Chelsea FC and part-owner, Mr Boehly’s connection with Vivid Seats is totally inappropriate and significantly undermines the efforts of Chelsea FC, the Premier League, and the Metropolitan Police to combat ticket touting,” says the letter.

“Mr Boehly has been contacted directly by the CST and has been offered multiple opportunities to both publicly and privately address supporters’ concerns. Neither Mr Boehly nor his representatives have, however, acted on these requests, and thousands of tickets remain for sale on the Vivid Seats website.

“The CST firmly believes that it is now time for the Premier League to act and investigate. We would . . . anticipate that the Premier League would take this opportunity to act swiftly and ensure that a major shareowner of a Premier League club ceases facilitating the sale of tickets for significantly above face value.”

The letter adds that the platform lists hundreds of Chelsea general admission tickets “at significantly inflated prices”, which “are considered by CFC to be ‘illegal sales’ ”. A Football Supporters’ Association spokesman backed the CST, saying: “There is no excuse for a club owner to be involved in such activity.”

Some of the tickets the Todd Boehly part-owned site were selling for the 2025 Carabao Cup Final:

Yes, the company that Chelsea’s Todd Boehly co-owns, listing Carabao Cup final tickets for sale, for as much as £4,450.

Away from the neutral areas of Wembley, the most expensive tickets in both the Newcastle United and Liverpool sections, are priced at £3,878.

The cheapest Newcastle United ticket listed is £1,940, the cheapest Liverpool section ticket is listed at £1,141.

Looking on the Vivid Seats official site, the Board of Directors page, this is what you still find.

What are the Premier League and other football authorities doing about this?

How can Todd Boehly be allowed to be a co-owner of Chelsea as well as facilitating the reselling of tickets for thousands more than face value?

Every Premier League club (and those in the three divisions below) gets an allocation of Carabao Cup final tickets. Cynical people might wonder where Chelsea’s allocation end up…

My original article on The Mag – 5 February 2025:

This new revelation on Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly is truly mind blowing.

The Times report (see below) states that Chelsea condemn any of their fans who resell tickets at more than face value, threatening them with sanctions, including fans losing their season tickets.

Yet at the same time the co-owner and main man/face of the club, Todd Boehly, co-owns a company that profits from Premier League tickets getting resold for as much as tens of thousands of pounds.

The shameless reselling company that Todd Boehly co-owns, is also on the official Premier League list of unauthorised ticketing websites.

This is beyond shocking.

So basically, Chelsea have somehow been allowed by the Premier League ‘rules’ to stay within PSR limits despite spending well over £1.5 billion on players since Todd Boehly and his mates took control only two and a half years ago. This amidst all kinds of rumours/reports of using accountancy practices to sell one or more of the club’s training ground, hotels, women’s team effectively to themselves (part of the same overall business, same owners etc).

Then The Times reporting that Todd Boehly is then personally profiting, as a co-owner, of disgraceful reselling/touting of Premier League tickets for many many times face value, up to tens of thousands of pounds.

Then the obvious thing is to complete the circle, whereby Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly will then be effectively using cash he makes from the reselling/touting site, to then help finance the shocking way Chelsea are financially allowed to run their club.

When approached, The Times reporting that Chelsea ‘declined to comment’, no surprises there!

Then the Premier League doing the same, also declining to comment. No surprises there either.

The biggest threat by far to the Premier League and fans, is the ever increasing number of American owners.

The American owners of Liverpool and Man U who twice were thrwarted in their attempts to steal away football for their own selfish greed.

They were key players in trying to create a break away European Super League (along with Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and Man City) that would have given them automatic qualification and ruined all major domestic leagues, especially financially. Whilst that ‘cunning’ plan followed an earlier one where these same six clubs tried to force through changes that would forever give themselves far greater voting powers over other Premier League clubs, so they could at any time force through future votes to award themselves even more money and control.

The total ‘punishment’, if you can call it that, was that collectively the shamed six clubs paid a fine which was the rough equivalent of a week of their collective wage bills. No European bans, no Premier League points deducted, only a nominal fine.

The Times report – 4 February 2025:

‘Chelsea’s co-owner Todd Boehly is a director of a website that facilitates the resale of Premier League match tickets for tens of thousands of pounds.

Boehly is co-owner of Vivid Seats, an American site that allows users outside the UK to buy and sell tickets, in many cases at huge mark-ups, to concerts and sporting events.

The company charges commission of 10 per cent, and an additional service fee. British fans cannot use Vivid Seats or other sites like it because it is illegal to resell tickets in this way in the UK. The Premier League includes Vivid Seats in a list of “unauthorised ticketing websites”.

Tickets are available on Vivid Seats for a swathe of upcoming Premier League matches. The cheapest tickets listed for Liverpool’s final home game of the season are priced at more than £1,700; the most expensive at nearly £20,000.

Chelsea have condemned ticket holders who sell on their seats for profit, stating on their website last year: “Supporters found to be selling their ticket for more than face value will be subject to a club investigation and sanctions, including the removal of season tickets, memberships and access to the away match ticket scheme.

“This unfortunately occurs more often than you would expect, and the club has been forced to ban many members and season ticket holders. In some cases, the matter will be reported to the police for criminal prosecution.

“The only place to purchase general admission tickets is via official Chelsea FC channels, including the club website and ticket exchange. Ticket holders can only transfer a ticket to a friend or family member for no more than face value.”