Todd Boehly and Mark Walter have held talks about selling their shares in Chelsea to Clearlake Capital.
Clearlake currently owns 61.5 per cent of the club, while Boehly, Walter and Hansjorg Wyss each own a 12.8 per cent stake.
Clearlake, under the leadership of Behdad Eghbali and Jose Feliciano, effectively run the club even though Boehly is the chairman.
Boehly was the face of the consortium which bought the club four years ago in a £2.5bn deal.
‘Boehly exit would be positive for Chelsea’
Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly could sell his stake in the club
Daily Mail’s Riath Al-Samarrai speaking on Sky Sports News’ Paper Talk:
“It’s been a very uneasy alliance, almost from the get-go.
“There have been some pretty notable sort of differences in opinion. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I always go back to one of the sort of turning points: (Mauricio) Pochettino leaving.
“All the information we had was that Boehly wanted him to stay, but Clearlake were on the other side of that, and that’s a fairly sort of big one for an ownership group not to be agreeing on.
“I actually think this will be a positive thing for Chelsea. I’m not necessarily sure either of them are particularly loved, but if he goes, then it creates maybe a little bit of clarity behind the scenes.
“But this is still contingent on Clearlake stumping up the money for him to accept.
“We know as well that his real kind of control of the club, the chairmanship, is going to expire next summer. There was always that thought in the background that that would be a point when there might be a natural parting of the ways, but it appears to be coming a little bit sooner.”