Chelsea Women appoint the Athletic’s GM as new CEO in surprise move

Chelsea have appointed a media expert with no experience of running a football club as the first chief executive officer of their women’s team. Aki Mandhar has been headhunted to run the Women’s Super League champions from her position as general manager of the Athletic, the sports website owned by the New York Times.

Mandhar is due to start work at Chelsea before the end of the year with a brief to ensure the club’s on-field success is replicated off the field. Despite winning a fifth successive WSL title last season Chelsea failed to attract big crowds when their games were moved to Stamford Bridge, in contrast to Arsenal’s success in filling the Emirates Stadium for women’s matches.

Mandhar’s appointment has caused some surprise at Chelsea given her limited experience of football. Before joining the Athletic four years ago she was chief operating officer at the Daily Telegraph after beginning her career in public relations. Paul Green will retain primary responsibility for player recruitment in his role as general manager.

Chelsea Women, from this season, will be run separately from the men’s operation. In May, the club announced a strategic growth plan with Chelsea Women “repositioned so that it sits alongside, rather than beneath, the men’s team” with “dedicated resources, management and commercial leadership”, a move that has led to Mandhar’s appointment.

Chelsea also appointed BDT & MSD Partners, a global merchant bank, with a brief to attract a minority investment, but the following month in effect sold the women’s team to itself. Ownership was transferred from Chelsea FC Holdings Limited to a sister company, BlueCo, in a move that seemed to many an accounting trick to help the club comply with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules before the 30 June deadline.

As an associated party transaction that deal will have to be ratified by the Premier League, which will assess whether BlueCo paid fair market value. That process has yet to take place.

Mandhar will arrive at Chelsea at a turbulent time, with the club’s two ownership groups, led by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly, battling for control, with each side seeking to buy the other out.

Chelsea Women are the most successful club of the professional era, but the ownership’s stewardship has been criticised over the past two years, particularly for failing to offer Emma Hayes a new contract before her departure to the United States women’s national team last November. Hayes has been replaced by Sonia Bompastor, who joined from Lyon and will take charge for the first time in their opening WSL game of the season against Aston Villa next Friday.

Chelsea declined to comment.