Relations between Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali at Chelsea have soured to the point where both parties are serious exploring the the nuclear option: forcing a full takeover.

If it does come to that - and the noises coming from outlets as reputable as Bloomberg and The Athletic is that it may well do - Eghbali's faction holds the high card.

Clearlake Capital, the private equity firm chaired by Eghbali, Jose Feliciano and James Pade, control almost twice as much equity at Stamford Bridge as Boehly's bloc.

The two groups seemingly have very different visions for Chelsea which centre around issues as fundamental as where the club should play their home games.

Eghbali wants to expand and revamp Stamford Bridge, whereas Boehly wants to build a brand new stadium that can accommodate 60,000 spectators.

In the short term, the two parties need to reconcile their differences to streamline their approach to compliance with the Premier League and UEFA's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).

Even factoring in Chelsea's intra-company sales of the women's team and two on-site hotels, it looks likely that prize money from FIFA's expanded Club World Cup could be make-or-break.

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Enzo Maresca's Blues will represent the Premier League alongside Man City at the tournament in the United States next summer.

But FIFA have encountered a number of issues in trying to get the project off the runway.

To explore the Club World Cup in the context of Boehly-Eghbali power struggle, the Chelsea Chronicle spoke to Kieran Maguire, lecturer on football finance at Liverpool University and industry insider.

Enzo Maresca and Chelsea's owners at odds over Club World Cup? By far and away the most divisive issue in the debate over the Club World Cup has been over player welfare and workload.

Two powerful organisations, FIFPro and the European Leagues, have even filed a legal complaint against FIFA, targeting both the Club World Cup and the international match calendar.

As quoted by Reuters, Maresca himself has previously said: "For me, it's completely wrong with the amount of games that we have.

"But the only ones that can do something are the players and we can help them.

"In the last two weeks some of the players have tried to explain what they think and I think it's a good starting point. Some of them have said that [going on strike] could be an idea for them."

Conversely, it is widely understood that the Club World Cup has the explicit support of Boehly, Eghbali and the rest of their peers in the Chelsea boardroom.

Maguire highlighted this dichotomy, saying: "FIFA are in a very challenging position.

"The popularity of the organisation with individual associations - particularly the smaller ones - is linked to the fact that they are very generous and democratic with its financial distribution. Everyone gets the same slice of the pie in terms of a dividend.

"There are concerns that FIFA has committed itself to significant participation and event fees but it doesn't have broadcast or sponsorship deals. All we do know is the tournament itself. We don't even know all the teams that are going to participate.

"I suspect there will be networking taking place to try and amend the broadcast issue and then there could be a late rush of sponsors to plug the gaps, but it is certainly a gamble that FIFA are taking.

"There is no desire from players, fans, broadcasters of sponsors for the competition The reaction of the European Leagues would suggest they cannot explicitly state that they don't want to appear in the competition.

"It is noticeable that Carlo Ancelotti effectively got his knuckles wrapped when he said he wasn't in favour of it. That is because Real Madrid only see the bottom line in terms of finances.

Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and the real 'main man' behind the scenes at Chelsea Ultimately, the decision to play in the Club World Cup lies with Maresca's paymasters, the owners.

And Maguire claims that the signals coming from behind the scenes at Chelsea suggest that it is Eghbali, not Boehly, who will have the final say.

"Chelsea will be monitoring the lack of progress with this competition with a great degree of care.

"They won't want to use their get-out-of-jail-free card in terms of player sales, but they will have to consider that if this tournament fails to take place at the scale that Gianni Infantino is looking for.

"My understanding is that Todd Boehly isn't involved in day-to-day decisions at the moment. Behdad Eghbali is very much the main man.

"That seems to be the case in terms of recruitment and retention and other issues, which I imagine will encompass the approach to the Club World Cup.

"So they will have adopted a wait-and-see approach.

"Chelsea have the player assets to pull out of the hat as they get closer to 30th June and this tournament isn't looking promising."

Chelsea on 'sticky wicket' with commercial income Some commentators and analysts have suggested that the global exposure that Chelsea will get from the Club World Cup is worth the price of admission alone.

Commercial income will be key if Chelsea are to avoid breaching PSR this season, and the club need to continue to tap into their fanbase worldwide to extract maximum value.

And with Nike among the stakeholders unhappy with Chelsea, maximising the potential of the Club World Cup will be even more pivotal than it might have been in a different eta.

But Maguire is not confident that the Club World Cup will be the commercial boon that many have predicted.

"I think Chelsea and Man City are on a sticky wicket when it comes to additional commercial revenues from this tournament," he said.

"Potential partners will be aware that the broadcast deal for the tournament might be an artificial construct. Will there actually be that many eyeballs on the product?

"So I don't think we'll see much of an uptick on the commercial side of things. The main financial uptick will be in the tournament itself."

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