“I would like to address the speculation in the media in recent days regarding my ownership of Chelsea FC. As I have said before, I have always made decisions with the best interest of the club in mind. In the current situation, therefore, I have made the decision to sell Chelsea. since I think it is the best for the club, the fans, the employees, as well as the sponsors and partners,” said Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea, an English team, since 2003, in a statement shared by the team on their social networks. .
“The sale of the club will not be rushed but will follow due process. I will not ask for any loans to be repaid. This has never been about business or money for me, but rather out of pure passion for the game and Chelsea. In addition, I have instructed my team to establish a charitable foundation to which all net proceeds from the sale will be donated. The foundation will be for the benefit of all the victims of the war in Ukraine. This includes providing critical funding for victims’ urgent and immediate needs, as well as supporting long-term recovery work.”
(Be sure to read: Russia and all its teams, removed from the Fifa 22 video game, by EA Sports).
“This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make and it pains me to part with the Club in this way. However, I believe this is what is best for Chelsea. I look forward to visiting Stamford Bridge one last time to say goodbye to all of you in person. It has been the privilege of my life to be part of Chelsea FC and I am proud of all our joint achievements. Chelsea Football Club and its fans will always be in my heart,” Abramovich closed in his letter.
The tycoon’s announcement came after British media replied that Boris Johnson’s government would be contemplating freezing the assets of all Russian oligarchs based in the United Kingdom.
So far, the state has sanctioned more than 100 Russian individuals and entities in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Abramovich is not among them.
Statement from Roman Abramovich.
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 2, 2022
Abramovich and Putin
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s fortune was made in the breakup of the Soviet Union. The ‘perestroika’ allowed it to take over assets and companies that had belonged to the Soviet government for ridiculously low prices compared to market value.
In this promotion, his good relationship with Boris Berezovsky, who became a millionaire selling cars in Russia and was a good friend of then President Boris Yeltsin, had a lot to do with it. That was the ‘pitch’ for Abramovich, who together with Berezovsky acquired the oil company Sibneft in 1995 for just 100 million pounds, through a controversial system of ‘loans for shares’.
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To facilitate the deal, Abramovich admitted years later in a London court that he had bribed Russian officials to give the go-ahead. This explained why only £100 million was paid for the company. By the beginning of 2000, Sibneft had a turnover of more than 2,000 million pounds.
It was in January 2003 when Abramovich took the step of getting into European football and buying Chelsea, for an amount close to 90 million euros. His goal was to get the London team to go from being just another candidate to dominating European football. And he got it. Since their rise to power, Chelsea have won 18 titles, including two European Cups. It only took two campaigns to win the “Premier League” for the first time in 50 years and the world football scene can no longer be understood without the Stamford Bridge club.
Abramovich’s situation as owner, however, has been tumultuous since 2018, when he was unable to renew his investor visa due to poor relations between Russia and the United Kingdom. He got an Israeli passport and has only visited London once since, in November 2021. Last week, the Russian oligarch announced that he was leaving the administration of the club in the hands of his foundation, stepping aside until the end of the war between Ukraine and Russia.. With the sale of his shareholding in Sibneft in 2005 to Gazprom, Abramovich pocketed some 11,000 million euros, which he then reinvested a year later in the purchase of the Evraz steel company. This is his biggest financial asset right now.
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In the political sphere, Abramovich has always maintained a close link with Vladimir Putin, as confirmed by a court in England in September 2012, which declared that “he has privileged access to the president”, but that there was no evidence that he could ” manipulate him.” In recent times and due to the bad relations between the United Kingdom and Russia, Abramovich has distanced himself from Putin.
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