Euro: Chelsea for sale

[beowulf]

From ownership...





I would like to address the speculation in media over the past few days in relation to my ownership of Chelsea FC. As I have stated before, I have always taken decisions with the Club’s best interest at heart. In the current situation, I have therefore taken the decision to sell the Club, as I believe this is in the best interest of the Club, the fans, the employees, as well as the Club’s sponsors and partners.

The sale of the Club will not be fast-tracked but will follow due process. I will not be asking for any loans to be repaid. This has never been about business nor money for me, but about pure passion for the game and Club. Moreover, I have instructed my team to set up a charitable foundation where all net proceeds from the sale will be donated. The foundation will be for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine. This includes providing critical funds towards the urgent and immediate needs of victims, as well as supporting the long-term work of recovery.

Please know that this has been an incredibly difficult decision to make, and it pains me to part with the Club in this manner. However, I do believe this is in the best interest of the Club.

I hope that I will be able to visit Stamford Bridge one last time to say goodbye to all of you in person. It has been a privilege of a lifetime to be part of Chelsea FC and I am proud of all our joint achievements. Chelsea Football Club and its supporters will always be in my heart.

Thank you,

Click to read more...

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Interesting. I guess that's the end of the fat years for Chelsea?

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Abrahimovich was a really good owner and he was really good to the club, not just the men's team but the women and the children too. Built up the community around the team as well, I'm sure new owners will be fine but man this guy really loved the team and basically forced out now cos of the actions of f***ing Putin.

 

[AB13]

Abrahimovich was a really good owner and he was really good to the club, not just the men's team but the women and the children too. Built up the community around the team as well, I'm sure new owners will be fine but man this guy really loved the team and basically forced out now cos of the actions of f***ing Putin.

Abramovich is being forced out because of his own actions. In the 2000s Abramovich used fraudulent money to fund Putin’s campaign and only bought a public asset (Chelsea) to avoid prosecution. Today he’s announcing the sale of Chelsea to avoid any heat following Putin’s actions in Ukraine that he literally funded. Abramovich illegally took control of the mineral wealth of Russia and sold it back to them at extortionate rates, with Putin’s help. He then used that money to get Putin elected. He is literally the reason Putin is in power and able to commit these atrocities in Ukraine. Abramovich is one of the oligarchs closest to Putin and has been described as Putins "long lost favorite son". Seriously. The war would probably not be happening without Roman Abramovich. Do your research on a truly disgusting human being.

 

[bleedblue1223]

The war would not be happening without Abramovich? Can you stop with the hyperbole, Putin would've still risen to power without Roman.

 

[Havre]

It is certainly an interesting case in terms of how much responsibility an individual bears vs how much one is caught up in a system.

I just feel sorry for the Russian people. The billions spent on Chelsea should have been spent on them of course. So happy to see Roman leave.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Worst case scenario for Chelsea - new owner is an American pro franchise owner who expects investment returns?

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

It is certainly an interesting case in terms of how much responsibility an individual bears vs how much one is caught up in a system.

I just feel sorry for the Russian people. The billions spent on Chelsea should have been spent on them of course. So happy to see Roman leave.

How many billionaires spend their money on 'the people'? Our billionaires have recently engaged in their own private space race so they can satisfy their egos.

 

[bluesfan94]

Curious to see who ends up buying Chelsea. I'm happy to pool all of our money here and we can make a bid.

 

[AB13]

The war would not be happening without Abramovich? Can you stop with the hyperbole, Putin would've still risen to power without Roman.

That's hypothetical. Abramovich undeniably played a huge role in Putin being elected.

 

[AB13]

Roman Abramovich owns the company supplying steel to build Russia’s tanks for the invasion of Ukraine, but has painted himself as the good guy by setting up a foundation to aid Ukraine. Hope no one on here is stupid enough to fall for his PR horseshit.

 

[bleedblue1223]

That's hypothetical. Abramovich undeniably played a huge role in Putin being elected.

Sure, he played a role, and he's done very shady shit that was rampant in post-Soviet collapse years. That's no reason to overreach with your argument that he's basically the puppet master and if Roman didn't exist, then Putin wouldn't have risen to power and Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine.

 

[Savant]

Not going to pretend that Roman is benevolent, but it’s not shocking at all to see him being portrayed this way by UK. Not going to elaborate any further on this for obvious reason. He’s not a good guy.

 

[AB13]

Sure, he played a role, and he's done very shady shit that was rampant in post-Soviet collapse years. That's no reason to overreach with your argument that he's basically the puppet master and if Roman didn't exist, then Putin wouldn't have risen to power and Russian would've have invaded Ukraine.

Without some of the influential oligarchs facing sanctions, I'm not sure if Putin would be in power right now. Abramovich is the one closest to Putin, it seems like. I'm obviously not largely blaming Abramovich for the war.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

You could say he played a hand in Putins rise -

That's hypothetical. Abramovich undeniably played a huge role in Putin being elected.

but the most important thing here is you should never use Wikipedia as a source.

 

[AB13]

You could say he played a hand in Putins rise -


but the most important thing here is you should never use Wikipedia as a source.

There are references to other sources on the wikipedia page I used.

 

[les Habs]

From the other thread, I think if you look at his charity and think he's a good Samaritan you're mistaken. He likely wouldn't be donating much if he didn't money elsewhere. And would he even get access to money from a sale?

 

[Havre]

How many billionaires spend their money on 'the people'? Our billionaires have recently engaged in their own private space race so they can satisfy their egos.

I don’t have an issue with billionaires in general.

And a space race is about 1b times better than spending it on a football club.

 

[bleedblue1223]

From the other thread, I think if you look at his charity and think he's a good Samaritan you're mistaken. He likely wouldn't be donating much if he didn't money elsewhere. And would he even get access to money from a sale?

The charitable take would be he's trying to make up for past wrongdoings, and the more reasonable take is just self-preservation. He'll get access to the money, it's just the net proceeds that he's donating, not the entirety of the sale. If someone wants to say that the endgame for him was just a way to clean his money, I really wouldn't pushback on it.

 

[hatterson]

How many billionaires spend their money on 'the people'? Our billionaires have recently engaged in their own private space race so they can satisfy their egos.

Out of curiosity, when spending money on a space race, do you think these billionaire are just loading rockets full of cash and launching them in to space?

No, they spending it on hardware and construction and the salaries of hundreds of engineers, technicians, support people etc.

The private space race has undoubtedly been a good thing for society as a whole, and that’s true even if you think things like StarLink or OneWeb aren’t useful technologies.

 

[hatterson]

The charitable take would be he's trying to make up for past wrongdoings, and the more reasonable take is just self-preservation. He'll get access to the money, it's just the net proceeds that he's donating, not the entirety of the sale. If someone wants to say that the endgame for him was just a way to clean his money, I really wouldn't pushback on it.

I think the big question would be if “net proceeds” is net after accounting for the initial sale price and any fees around the sale or if he’s also including expenditures over the years in his net costs.

If it’s the former, the charitable fund would have a couple billion dollars in it. If it’s the latter, it will be much smaller and Abramovich will walk away with a couple billion to cover his outlays over the years.

 

[Evilo]

Out of curiosity, when spending money on a space race, do you think these billionaire are just loading rockets full of cash and launching them in to space?

No, they spending it on hardware and construction and the salaries of hundreds of engineers, technicians, support people etc.

The private space race has undoubtedly been a good thing for society as a whole, and that’s true even if you think things like StarLink or OneWeb aren’t useful technologies.

Erh that's extremely debatable when it comes to pollution.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I think the big question would be if “net proceeds” is net after accounting for the initial sale price and any fees around the sale or if he’s also including expenditures over the years in his net costs.

If it’s the former, the charitable fund would have a couple billion dollars in it. If it’s the latter, it will be much smaller and Abramovich will walk away with a couple billion to cover his outlays over the years.

Yeah, until the actual numbers come out and we see what Ukrainians would receive from him, it doesn't mean a ton on its own.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Out of curiosity, when spending money on a space race, do you think these billionaire are just loading rockets full of cash and launching them in to space?

No, they spending it on hardware and construction and the salaries of hundreds of engineers, technicians, support people etc.

The private space race has undoubtedly been a good thing for society as a whole, and that’s true even if you think things like StarLink or OneWeb aren’t useful technologies.

So they engage in a business venture, sure, you could say that owning a football club also employs 100s of people at the club, the stadiums they play in, the media companies making deals with them, the merchandise manufacturers etc. etc. and flushes money into the economy and community. Are big football clubs a net plus for society? Probably, at least if you consider entertainment a value.

But what I'm saying is that it's weird to say 'shame he didn't hand his money to the people' as if that's something commonly done by billionaires. Ignoring the fact he's an oligarch in the former Soviet Union with all that entails, he seems to mostly have acted pretty much like billionaires in general.

 

[les Habs]

The charitable take would be he's trying to make up for past wrongdoings, and the more reasonable take is just self-preservation. He'll get access to the money, it's just the net proceeds that he's donating, not the entirety of the sale. If someone wants to say that the endgame for him was just a way to clean his money, I really wouldn't pushback on it.

I don't disagree and was going to write it as "charity".