Roman Abramovich plans to sell Chelsea | SOLD for £4.25BN

[Infra-red]

Least surprising news ever:

Leaked documents reveal a money trail linking oligarch Roman Abramovich to two men dubbed "wallets" of President Vladimir Putin.

The former Chelsea Football Club owner has been sanctioned by the UK and EU but has previously denied any financial relationship with the Russian leader.

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[Mickeza]

Truly shocking news. Nobody saw that one coming.

 

[Offside]

Strip them of their titles too.

 

[Changeisgood]

The day RA bought Chelsea was a disaster for the PL and even football. It opened the floodgates to the mess we have now. Should not have allowed the sale to go through all those years ago. We knew he was crooked, the only ones deluding themselves were Chelsea supporters. Football has not been the same since.

 

[Mb194dc]

Roman never did anything that wasn't already known ie he got his money buying Soviet ex energy assets at way below fair value and selling them on. All known about when he first got involved.

He should never have been forced to sell.

I look forward to other PL owners being sanctioned and effectively kicked out when whatever country they have citizenship of starts a war of aggression wherever.

 

[jadajos]

Roman never did anything that wasn't already known ie he got his money buying Soviet ex energy assets at way below fair value and selling them on. All known about when he first got involved.

He should never have been forced to sell.

I look forward to other PL owners being sanctioned and effectively kicked out when whatever country they have citizenship of starts a war of aggression wherever.

You clearly didn’t bother to read the BBC article yet decided to comment anyways…

 

[Stacks]

I assumed we all knew he was close with Putin when he bought the club

 

[Acrobat7]

I assumed we all knew he was close with Putin when he bought the club

You don't have power/money in Russia without being close to Putin.

 

[Sandikan]

Roman never did anything that wasn't already known ie he got his money buying Soviet ex energy assets at way below fair value and selling them on. All known about when he first got involved.

He should never have been forced to sell.

I look forward to other PL owners being sanctioned and effectively kicked out when whatever country they have citizenship of starts a war of aggression wherever.

Ahh Chelsea fan. Explained!

 

[Andycoleno9]

Ahh Chelsea fan. Explained!

He has some kind of point though.

 

[VP89]

He has some kind of point though.

I'd say not as much, because it's not just about citizenship but more about his affiliations with a war lord.

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

I'd say not as much, because it's not just about citizenship but more about his affiliations with a war lord.

I don't think you're wrong just for the record - but genuinely curious if you think there's a threshold for affiliation?

Stan Kroenke has donated millions to the Republican party in the US and they've pretty unequivocally committed war crimes (e.g. the false premise for invading & subsequent plundering of Iraq).

 

[VP89]

I don't think you're wrong just for the record - but genuinely curious if you think there's a threshold for affiliation?

Stan Kroenke has donated millions to the Republican party in the US and they've pretty unequivocally committed war crimes (e.g. the false premise for invading & subsequent plundering of Iraq).

You have a point but it's also tricky to turn a blind eye to man having one degree of separation to another single person with so much blood on his hands.

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

You have a point but it's also tricky to turn a blind eye to man having one degree of separation to another single person with so much blood on his hands.

Yeah don't disagree with you and apologies as it was probably an unanswerable question.

Just been pondering it to be honest - and of course this isn't to excuse any Chelsea malfeasance or anything.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

I don't think you're wrong just for the record - but genuinely curious if you think there's a threshold for affiliation?

Stan Kroenke has donated millions to the Republican party in the US and they've pretty unequivocally committed war crimes (e.g. the false premise for invading & subsequent plundering of Iraq).

This might matter from an ethical/philosophical perspective and is a great gateway for whataboutism (not saying it's what you're doing, just saying that's what it leads to), but the cold hard facts relate to economical sanctions enacted by a State/group of States in which RA wanted to conduct business. I would agree it's hypocritical that it was acceptable in 2003 and no longer in 2022 (I believe RA should never have been allowed to purchase a club, but the standards for ownership and the due diligence processes are low and reek of incompetence, at the very least), but the reality is also that the way Russia was viewed internationally shifted drastically after the illegal invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions that were enacted from it made his position unsustainable. I honestly have no doubt some of the money will be back-channeled to him once the dust has settled, and in 10-15 years a hard hitting journalistic piece will come out showing how the money didn't, in fact, entirely go to "the victims of the war in the Ukraine". Probably narrated by an AI generated Morgan Freeman voice.

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

This might matter from an ethical/philosophical perspective and is a great gateway for whataboutism (not saying it's what you're doing, just saying that's what it leads to), but the cold hard facts relate to economical sanctions enacted by a State/group of States in which RA wanted to conduct business. I would agree it's hypocritical that it was acceptable in 2003 and no longer in 2022 (I believe RA should never have been allowed to purchase a club, but the standards for ownership and the due diligence processes are low and reek of incompetence, at the very least), but the reality is also that the way Russia was viewed internationally shifted drastically after the illegal invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions that were enacted from it made his position unsustainable. I honestly have no doubt some of the money will be back-channeled to him once the dust has settled, and in 10-15 years a hard hitting journalistic piece will come out showing how the money didn't, in fact, entirely go to "the victims of the war in the Ukraine". Probably narrated by an AI generated Morgan Freeman voice.

Yeah agreed with everything you've posted here - the money being donated to "those affected" was pretty dodgy.

Certainly wasn't trying to deflect or anything and we can definitely put a pin in it - as you say it's easy for these conversations to be derailed.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

Yeah agreed with everything you've posted here - the money being donated to "those affected" was pretty dodgy.

Certainly wasn't trying to deflect or anything and we can definitely put a pin in it - as you say it's easy for these conversations to be derailed.

No worries mate - I know you've been totally level-headed about all this during those events, so it wasn't a dig in any way, and I don't find it entirely uninteresting to discuss the hypocrisy of ethics at a State level... but I'm not entirely sure RA is the best starting point in general