A Chelsea supporters\u2019 group has confirmed two planned protests aimed at ownership group BlueCo, with demonstrations set before the FA Cup final against Manchester City on May 16 and a second protest a few days later against Tottenham Hotspur. NotAProjectCFC said a banner questioning the performances of co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart will be displayed during the gatherings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we recognize the importance of both matches, we feel these steps are absolutely necessary in an attempt to send a public message that we have no faith in the current ownership and the direction the club is heading,\u201d a statement read .<\/p>\n
The protests follow a period of growing fan frustration as BlueCo, which arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2022, pursued an ambitious plan from 2023 to make Chelsea one of Europe\u2019s best clubs. Led by co-owner Behdad Eghbali, the ownership assembled a decision-making team including Winstanley, Stewart and recruitment chiefs Joe Shields and Sam Jewell. The stated strategy focused on heavy investment in young players, developing them into stars, winning trophies and generating profits by selling fringe players.<\/p>\n
A total of $2 billion (\u00a31.5 billion) has been spent to build Chelsea\u2019s squad and the club recorded the largest pre-tax loss in history at $350 million (\u00a3262 million). Limited on-field success and underwhelming returns through player trading are cited in that financial picture.<\/p>\n
Recent results have done little to calm supporters. Monday\u2019s defeat to Nottingham Forest and a season in which Chelsea face a battle to finish in the top half of the Premier League table have intensified criticism. Enzo Maresca\u2019s time in charge, which included victory in the Club World Cup during the summer, briefly muted complaints, but his departure in January after a clash with those above him marked a turning point. The subsequent hiring and swift firing of Liam Rosenior did not appease fans.<\/p>\n
Media briefs following Rosenior\u2019s exit promised a period of \u201cself-reflection,\u201d but supporters remain skeptical. \u201cGiven the unprecedented expenditure on the men\u2019s first team since Blueco acquired the club, this is absolutely unacceptable,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issues at the club go far beyond any manager. Until meaningful change is brought about to the environment in which they operate, the identity of these managers will be futile. We also have no faith that the club is entering any period of \u2018self-reflection\u2019 as stated. We are interested in actions, not words.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fans plan two protests before the FA Cup final and a later match, demanding change from BlueCo. more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1383,172],"tags":[1505,1317],"class_list":["post-13642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-chelsea-news","category-epl","tag-accountability","tag-accounts-2025-26"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}