Reports are surfacing today that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has handed over his ownership of Chelsea FC to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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After twelve years of owning the West London club, it appears as though the Russian oligarch has decided to call it quits. With Forbes valuing the club at $868 million, the amount of money that has changed hands is reportedly half of that, with one reliable source citing it as “a mate’s rate”.
Abramovich took control of Chelsea in the summer of 2003, purchasing just over the majority of the shares for around £30 million. He then quickly bought out the rest of the stakeholders before removing the club from the stock exchange. He then proceeded to provide seemingly endless funds for his managers over the next few years, allowing Chelsea to capture multiple league titles and cups and become a global footballing behemoth.
the concession stands will be serving ice cold vodka on tap
The crowning jewel, though, was no doubt winning the Champions League in an epic final in 2012. However it now appears that, having won every trophy imaginable, cleared the club’s debt and set it up with a viable business model, Roman feels he has achieved all that he wanted to in England and has chosen to move on. It is also thought that an impending clampdown on house extensions in London will jeopardise the construction of his new home and thus leave him with insufficient space to store his many bars of gold.
How about the new owner then? Well, Vladimir Putin does have a proven track record in leadership. Putin has been President of Russia for around 15 years, albeit having taken a hiatus in 2008 to ‘pursue other endeavours’ such as writing a children’s novel and riding a horse. However, no matter how close an alliance there (allegedly) is between the two Russians, a change in owner will leave Chelsea coaching staff worried about their positions.
Roman feels he has achieved all that he wanted to in England
If Jose Mourinho were to have his contract terminated, the current speculation is that ‘hero of the Russian Federation’ Rusev would be favourite to replace him. Rusev recently dropped the United States Championship at Wrestlemania which is said to have sparked a desire in him to move over into football management, according to sources close to Bulgarian Russian.
Furthermore, as a result of a slightly more far-fetched conjecture to spring from this news, bookies are currently doing specials on Boris Yeltsin being brought in as the next physio. I’ll leave it to you to determine how believable that is.
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New sponsors Yokohama are also said to be keeping a close eye on proceedings following reports that their deal is to be terminated (before it even starts) in lieu of aggressively plastering Gazprom over everything from the kit to the roof of Stamford Bridge.
This is certainly shocking news that potentially could have massive consequences, good or bad, for the club. The most reassuring thing is that transfer funds should remain unaffected, if not increase, while (in a move first bandied about by Abramovich) the concession stands will apparently be serving ice cold vodka on tap. As this is a very early stage in the breaking of this story hopefully more details will emerge in the coming hours which we’ll report here at The Pride of London.
Until then, Happy April Fool’s day.
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