Chelsea are back in turmoil after Abramovich reportedly decided that he wants his loans repaid after all, and that causes a headache for the government.
It feels as though a lot of people have been lulled into a false sense of security about the future of Chelsea over the last few weeks. There was a period during which the severity of their position following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions issued against Putin-adjacent oligarchs was pretty clear. No contract negotiations. No food to be sold inside the ground. No further ticket sales. The list went on. It was unprecedented in the history of the game in this country.
But the difficulty in which the club found itself has faded from view since the bidding process for the sale of the club began. Sure enough, the matter of the whole transaction being overseen by investment bank the Raine Group on behalf of the government leaves it all feeling a tad unusual, but otherwise the bidding process proceeded very much as we might have expected: very rich people jostling for position, meeting with representatives from the club, its supporters trust and other influential stakeholders, with indistinct promises being made of a brighter future.
The consortium fronted by Todd Boehly have been confirmed as the preferred bidders for the club, but there was some degree of drama when it was reported that a British-led consortium fronted by this country’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, had submitted a bid at the very last minute that was worth substantially more than the others. Why this bid wasn’t made by the original date of April 14 has not been clarified, and the question of why it even should be considered when it arrived two weeks after the closing date for bids – even if it’s understandable that such dates are largely arbitrary and can be moved if necessary – also remains unanswered.
And now a further bombshell has dropped, and its ramifications could be far-reaching. Roman Abramovich, it has been…
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