Serena Williams’ social media tycoon husband, Alexis Ohanian, has reportedly purchased a £20million stake in Chelsea Women FC. The pair are believed to be jetting to London for this weekend’s Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley, with Ohanian poised to take a seat on the board and tennis legend Williams also expected to be ‘engaged’ in some capacity.
Ohanian, who co-founded social media platform Reddit, has an estimated net worth of £113m. And wife of nearly eight years Williams has amassed a huge personal fortune of around £226m, helped by a glittering professional tennis career which brought her 23 Grand Slam titles.
According to The Times, Ohanian’s £20m share purchase has landed him just under 10 per cent of the club. The transaction effectively values Chelsea Women FC at more than £200m, which would make it the most valuable women’s football team on the planet.
The Blues face Manchester United on Sunday as they bid to turn their unbeaten Women’s Super League (WSL) triumph into a league and cup double.
The process of making Chelsea Women FC into a completely separate entity to the men’s team started last year, with merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners brought on board to find sources of investment.
Ohanian has previous experience of club ownership in women’s football. He was the majority shareholder of National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) franchise Angel City, which sold for £190m last year.
That may form part of the reason Chelsea chiefs opted for the £20m bid led by Ohanian’s investment company, Seven Seven Six Capital, over the three rival proposals.
Chelsea faced scrutiny for selling the women’s team to a sister company for £200m last year, with the figure still to be approved by Premier League bosses as being of fair market value. Ohanian’s investment could help their case, given that the money his company have pledged relative to the side of the shareholding values the club even higher than that figure.
It remains to be seen whether rival teams follow in Chelsea’s footsteps and adopt a similar ownership model given the rapid growth of the women’s game. The owners of Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City have all plunged significant investment into their women’s teams, but all three finished the WSL season trailing Chelsea by a hefty margin.