Chelsea FC: What Roman Abramovich’s visa issues mean for the club
Chelsea FC’s recent news has taken an even more dramatic turn than usual with the announcements surrounding the new Stamford Bridge and Roman Abramovich’s visa.
Roman Abramovich has not been issued a permanent residency visa to the United Kingdom. The reason for this is down to what has been an increased amount of diplomatic tension between the United Kingdom and Russia following the attempted assassination of former Russian intelligence officer and current UK resident Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
The visa that Roman Abramovich had been seeking is called a “Tier 1 Investor Visa” but is more commonly known as a Golden Visa. The reason for this is because it is almost entirely obtained through meeting a series of economic incentives.
Under normal circumstances, Abramovich qualifies for this visa with ease. Following the attempt on the life of the politically protected Sergei Skripal, tensions between the United Kingdom and Russia are at an alltime high. Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May has suggested that the United Kingdom is going to review its practices with the visa program. It is likely because of this that Abramovich’s visa has been held up.
Abramovich’s hassle, then, is probably a direct result of the Russia-UK political rift. Where the source of each individual’s wealth was not previously pursued, it is something that is being made more and more important with each passing day. Whitehall, a term for the British Government, are now cracking down on what could be dirty money that they deem “not conducive to the public good.”
Related Story: Chelsea: Laurent Blanc is a safety net with a quick expiration date
The roots of this assumed connection between Abramovich and this Anglo-Russian issue are the Chelsea owner’s well-known history as a friend, advisor and political ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
In the years following the fall of the Soviet Union, Abramovich was one of the men who profited greatly from the privatization period of the USSR’s large resource reserves. He was part of a group of businessmen closely tied to the Kremlin and then leader Boris Yeltsin. Abramovich even at this time lived in an apartment inside the Kremlin at the request of the Yeltsin family. Many accuse this group of buying the election for Yeltsin, a claim that is, of course, more rumor than fact. In the time after Yeltsin passed power on, Abramovich was among those who suggested Putin for the role.
The two publicly have a very close friendship. Abramovich is on the record as having once gifted the now leader of Russia a private $50 million yacht following Putin’s birthday – which Abramovich attended – in 1999. Another oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, has even claimed that during the 1990’s, Abramovich had a great deal of political influence in Moscow.
It is not hard to see this as simple political movement in the sphere of Russian politics. After all, Abramovich was elected in 1999 as governor of the remote region of Russia called Chutotka. His connection to Russian politics makes a great deal of sense.
Abramovich and Chelsea therefore are caught in the middle of a tense tug of war between Russia and the United Kingdom. For a long time, Britain has been something of a safe haven for the wealthy of Russia. With the recent issues surrounding the poisoning of Skripal, this move on behalf of the UK government is something of a bite back at Russia.
Abramovich though, not having anything proven wrong or illegal, is simply feeling the weight of added bureaucratic tightness on the behalf of an agitated British government.
What then does this mean for Chelsea FC? Not a ton. Many Premier League owners do not have residency permits in the United Kingdom. Fifteen of the Premier League’s teams last season were owned by foreign investors, and all of them do not live or at least make the UK their main residence.
Abramovich has found a way around most of the UK’s issues by applying for Israeli citizenship. As Israel is classified as a non-visa requiring country, Abramovich will be able to enter the UK in a tourist (non-working fashion) for up to six months at a time. As it is, Abramovich already does not spend more than six straight months at a time in the UK as he spends time in Moscow, Manhattan, St. Barths, the south of France and is supposedly buying a new residence in Israel.
Abramovich also does not do the daily handling of Chelsea FC anymore. He delegated that job to Marina Granovskaia. So this does not effect the day-to day running of Chelsea FC in the slightest unless the UK visa issue has put Abramovich off the UK entirely and he decides to sell the club,
Then why the stadium announcement? Chelsea supporters should not worry about this too much either. With the stadium redevelopment Chelsea were only adding 19,000 seats at the cost of a billion pounds. It simply does not make sense for a club that are already in their own sort of austerity program. They would be better off taking a few inches out of each seat, digging the pitch down a little and adding a few rows at the top and bottom of each stand.
The stadium development is a mess of issues as well beside the cost Chelsea would also need someplace new to play for almost four years and finding a new home can be difficult. Twickenham turned Chelsea down and the FA are thinking about selling Wembley to Shahid Khan for £800 million. Chelsea may as well just buy Wembley then and save £200 million.
Next: Chelsea looking at stop gaps and strikers they cannot afford
It is easy to make too big a deal out of what appears to be a delicate although likely harmless situation for Chelsea and Roman Abramovich at Stamford Bridge. Abramovich has not done anything wrong. He is simply a well-known wealthy man being made to pay for a situation much larger than our perfect little blue football side.