Chelsea, a European champion up for auction with unexpected problems for sale

David Dein, the British businessman who used the vice-presidency of Arsenal -like other businessmen- for his personal and social promotion, came up with a prescient metaphor to refer to the landing of an oligarch in the Premier: "Roman Abramóvich has parked his tank Russian in front of our front garden and he is shooting £50 notes at us."

Who would have thought, 19 years after rescuing Chelsea and turning it into one of the most powerful clubs in Europe and the world, that the Russian billionaire would be evicted by cannon fire from English football.

Abramovich is in a hurry to sell.

More and more voices are claiming the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, the head of the businessman, starting with the leader of the Labor opposition, Keir Starmer.

If he finally suffers the economic sanctions already imposed on other oligarchs for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and sees his assets frozen, the possibility of transferring the club will vanish.

And that leads those who are most critical of the growing Russian influence in the United Kingdom to suspect, such as the Labor MP Chris Bryant or the Conservative David Davis, that Downing Street is playing for time, to allow an advantageous transaction for Chelsea that does not cause the fan fury.

Abramóvich has come to reject offers for the club of more than 2,600 million euros.

He will now have to settle for much less if he wants to speed up the sale.

The problem is that this silent, shy, withdrawn billionaire, who has tried to convince British society from the beginning that his only interest in controlling Chelsea stemmed from "his love of football", is now looking for an honorable exit with an impossible triple strategy.

He has promised that he will forgive the €1.8 billion loan that the entity owes to his company, Fordstam Limited.

And that he will donate all the profits from the operation to the Chelsea foundation, so that it can be used to help the victims of the "war in Ukraine" - his statement does not contain the word "Russia" nor the term "invasion" - since the reconstruction of the country.

But at the same time, to date,

it has been unable to clearly condemn the massacre ordered by Vladimir Putin, as other oligarchs targeted by the sanctions have done.

Abramovich wants both the affection of the fans and not to have problems with the Kremlin.

He wants a quick but orderly sale.

At least he would recover the 170 million euros that he paid in 2003 for the centenary team, but that is hardly the incentive for a businessman whose personal fortune is valued at more than 12,000 million euros.

Rather, everything indicates that Abramovich may even aspire to play for time, hoping that a ceasefire or a negotiation would put an end to the tragedy in Ukraine.

Magazine

Abramovich wants both the affection of the fans and not to have problems with the Kremlin.

He wants a quick but orderly sale.

At least he would recover the 170 million euros that he paid in 2003 for the centenary team, but that is hardly the incentive for a businessman whose personal fortune is valued at more than 12,000 million euros.

Rather, everything indicates that Abramovich may even aspire to play for time, hoping that a ceasefire or a negotiation would put an end to the tragedy in Ukraine.

Magazine

Abramovich wants both the affection of the fans and not to have problems with the Kremlin.

He wants a quick but orderly sale.

At least he would recover the 170 million euros that he paid in 2003 for the centenary team, but that is hardly the incentive for a businessman whose personal fortune is valued at more than 12,000 million euros.

Rather, everything indicates that Abramovich may even aspire to play for time, hoping that a ceasefire or a negotiation would put an end to the tragedy in Ukraine.

Magazine

Rather, everything indicates that Abramovich may even aspire to play for time, hoping that a ceasefire or a negotiation would put an end to the tragedy in Ukraine.

Magazine

Rather, everything indicates that Abramovich may even aspire to play for time, hoping that a ceasefire or a negotiation would put an end to the tragedy in Ukraine.

Magazine

estimated the value of Chelsea, just a year ago, in a range of between 3,000 and 4,000 million euros.

The Russian oligarch would aspire to close the sale at the top of that range, but potential buyers don't want to talk about anything over £2bn (€2.4bn).

The Stamford Bridge Trap

Abramóvich has tried for all these years, without success, to be able to take over the land of the legendary Stamford Bridge stadium, in London, and with the rights to the name of the club: Chelsea FC.

The two treasures belong to the non-profit society

(Chelsea Pitch Owners, CPO), set up in 1992 by former club chairman Ken Bates, to prevent the coveted piece of land situated between the Hammersmith and Fulham neighborhoods in the capital's western affluent British, would end up in the hands of property developers.

23,000 individual participations, in the hands of fans from all over the world, and a lease with the club at a bargain price for the use of the facilities for 200 years.

The sale of the land or the name requires the support of 75% of the participating partners.

In the astronomical economic world of football, a 40,000-seat stadium doesn't have the revenue potential that other big clubs now have, with 70,000 seats and more.

All this adds up to disadvantages to sell a club that, even so, is today a powerful and attractive brand.

There are five Premiers and two Champions

since Abramovich took the reins.

Chelsea defeated Guardiola's Manchester City last year in the European Cup final held in Portugal.

It occupies third position in the Premier League this season, and its finances are as weakened as those of the rest of the clubs due to the pandemic, but sustained by the muscle provided by the Russian oligarch's money.

The losses, after taxes, for the season that ended on June 30, 2021 were 175 million euros.

And even so, the club spent that same year on players more than 265 million euros.

Four are the potential buyers of the club.

One is Hansjorg Wyss, the Swiss billionaire founder of

, the world's largest manufacturer of orthopedic discs and screws.

"Abramóvich is already trying to sell his mansion in London, and he wants to get rid of Chelsea as soon as possible," Wyss has already pressed in his public statements.

He has allied himself with two other investors and the limit of his offer is 2.4 billion euros.

Another is Stephen Ross, the American real estate developer who opted for the European Super League, and owns the broadcasting rights for the Champions League in the US.

Jim Ratcliffe joins, the British industrialist who in 2018 was the largest fortune in the country, owner of the chemical company Ineos Group.

Despite being a staunch Manchester United fan, he is a strong candidate to bid for Chelsea.

He already owns the French club Nice and the Ineos Grenadiers cycling club, seven-time Tour de France winners as Sky Team.

Abramóvich cannot renew his investor visa in 2018.

The assassination attempt by two Russian Kremlin operatives on double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the town of Salisbury increased tension between the two countries and complicated things for the oligarch, who opted for Israeli nationality.

Since then he has hardly been seen at Stamford Bridge, although his presence in British football has left its mark.

The flow of money that he injected into Chelsea even forced FIFA to introduce new rules such as

(Financial Fair Play) to balance the competition possibilities of the different clubs.

The oligarch leaves, paradoxically, a first level global mark;

a club attached to its fans and its local tradition;

and a perfectly oiled machine that, without the constant help of Abramovich's capital, is going to have to prove that it can produce profits.

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