Chelsea 2021-22 - Reigning Champions of Europe, and the World!

Philip Jeff Frye

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Although I don't begin to understand the nuances here, it would seem like the club is finished if these rules persist. Can't sell new tickets? Can't sell merchandise? I suppose they can finish out this season, but without those revenues, the club is bust in the fall, no?
 

SocrManiac

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I had to look into this more because my perception was that Abramovich was less Russian than other things these days. It seems he's active with Evraz, a Russian steel manufacturing and mining company.

Since it appeared he was active in selling the club, maybe this is a preliminary step in seizing it outright? Crippling a club that large will have monstrous effects on the working class that relies on it for income. I can't see any benefit to England in wiping Chelsea, FC off the map.
 

tmracht

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Yeah some messages flying on message boards/reddit that this may be a play for the club to be funneled in the direction of Nick Candy noted Tory Donor Christmas partier and Chelsea fan by Pitri Patel and company. Not sure if that's realistic or logical, but I doubt the play is to liquidate CFC when offers of 2.5B are on the table, I'm guessing its a flex by the government to move the funds/assets where they want.
 

67YAZ

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This heavy “NCAA Death Penalty” vibes.

I do believe the government will help broker a sale because it is a point of popular focus - Brits will want to see Roman punished but not necessarily the club and players punished, too. The key issues will be how the proceeds are handled.In the present environment, the government won’t send any money to Roman. Maybe it gets held in some kind of account or is donated to charity or is simply taken by the state so that Roman can later sue for his money.

edit - I think @tmracht is correct. There’s a strong nativist contingent in the Boris government. They will try to steer the club into English hands, even if Candy is only the face of an international group of investors.
 

mikeford

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I had to look into this more because my perception was that Abramovich was less Russian than other things these days. It seems he's active with Evraz, a Russian steel manufacturing and mining company.

Since it appeared he was active in selling the club, maybe this is a preliminary step in seizing it outright? Crippling a club that large will have monstrous effects on the working class that relies on it for income. I can't see any benefit to England in wiping Chelsea, FC off the map.
assuming the Tories care about the English working class would seem a fairly giant assumption.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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This heavy “NCAA Death Penalty” vibes.

I do believe the government will help broker a sale because it is a point of popular focus - Brits will want to see Roman punished but not necessarily the club and players punished, too. The key issues will be how the proceeds are handled.In the present environment, the government won’t send any money to Roman. Maybe it gets held in some kind of account or is donated to charity or is simply taken by the state so that Roman can later sue for his money.

edit - I think @tmracht is correct. There’s a strong nativist contingent in the Boris government. They will try to steer the club into English hands, even if Candy is only the face of an international group of investors.
I don't know who they'll sell it to but I definitely agree that this looks like the government trying to take control of the process of selling the club. Chelsea should still be OK once that process works itself out.

In the short term, however, especially if this process takes a while, I think Chelsea will be in some shit from a footballing perspective.

20k limit on spending for away matches is ridiculously low, especially for CL away matches. I've read that clubs typically spend 30k on a domestic away match. Chelsea could be riding the team bus across the chunnel next week to get to Lille.

Any summer business is obviously going to be on hold until new owners take control of the club. I think the sanctions also ensure that Granovskaia and others closely linked to Roman all leave and that the new owners are going to take over a nearly empty football operation, which is just a difficult situation in general.

From what I can tell, the operating license is not going to let them continue to run their academy during this period or its only going to run on a very bare bones basis. I believe that the pre-professional academy contracts run out on June 1 so if the operation isn't back to normal and there still isn't much clarity on the future by May we are likely to see a big exodus of talents to other clubs.
 
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bosox4283

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I had to look into this more because my perception was that Abramovich was less Russian than other things these days. It seems he's active with Evraz, a Russian steel manufacturing and mining company.

Since it appeared he was active in selling the club, maybe this is a preliminary step in seizing it outright? Crippling a club that large will have monstrous effects on the working class that relies on it for income. I can't see any benefit to England in wiping Chelsea, FC off the map.
Thanks for doing this research for me -- I did not not that Abramovich was still active in oligarch-related activities. I just assumed he enjoyed being a billionaire, owning a club, and continuing to live lavishly off his ill-gotten gains.
 

67YAZ

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Thanks for doing this research for me -- I did not not that Abramovich was still active in oligarch-related activities. I just assumed he enjoyed being a billionaire, owning a club, and continuing to live lavishly off his ill-gotten gains.
What started as the oligarchs propping up Putin as their champion & shield has inverted to Putin exerting powerful influence over the oligarchs to entrench his power.

In other words, no matter how many passports he has, Roman can’t just walk away. His remaining interest in Russian steel is more about Putin keeping him tied to the regime as it is a source of income for Roman.

No doubt, the oligarch’s individual relationships to Putin vary, but they are his key bloc for managing Russian political economy and international political economy. There’s no walking away.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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Is there a black market for Chelsea gear now? Or will such sellers be imprisoned?
I read somewhere that retailers are allowed to sell in-stock merchandise but cannot order any new stuff and cannot send funds to the club resulting from merchandise sales. So get your Pulisic jersey before supplies run out!
 

Seven Costanza

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My sister in law has been working for the club for over 5 years now; she's a higher up in the Stadium Tours/Club Museum/Special Events hierarchy. Not exactly sure how much longer she'll be employed.

My father in law has season tickets this year. What timing!
 

Seven Costanza

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I read somewhere that retailers are allowed to sell in-stock merchandise but cannot order any new stuff and cannot send funds to the club resulting from merchandise sales. So get your Pulisic jersey before supplies run out!
Club shop at the Bridge closed today- they just put a sign on the door saying 'closed until further notice'.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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So if this continues until the summer transfer window, what happens to players that want to exit? They can be sold with no funds to Chelsea? Allowed to go on free? You have to imagine players will not want to stay at the club under the current conditions.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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So if this continues until the summer transfer window, what happens to players that want to exit? They can be sold with no funds to Chelsea? Allowed to go on free? You have to imagine players will not want to stay at the club under the current conditions.
Under the current license offered by the government, they wouldn't be able to buy or sell players so those with contracts expiring in June would just leave and those with longer-term contracts would stay. But the current license also expires May 31 and its not clear whether a renewed license would have the same terms or not.
 

PedroSpecialK

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Thanks for doing this research for me -- I did not not that Abramovich was still active in oligarch-related activities. I just assumed he enjoyed being a billionaire, owning a club, and continuing to live lavishly off his ill-gotten gains.
The attempted PR spin in his statement last week was really something else.

This guy was one of the OG thieves of post-Soviet Russia (rising to mega-wealth through countless bribes and a relationship with the Yeltsins), has funneled hundreds of millions to the Likuds, has been tight with Vlad for decades, and - believe it or not - has worse pit stains than I do.

The hypocrisy in selling NUFC to the sportswashing murderers from KSA is not lost on me - but removal of CFC from Abramovich is a net positive. Until, of course, the Tories sell it to another group of Saudis.
 

Mighty Joe Young

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So … is it wrong to be revelling in Chelsea’s predicament ? I think not.

Decades of wealth showered on them by an evil sugar daddy owner .. they are getting their just desserts.

The Athletic today had an excellent explainer of what they can and can’t do. Cheap accommodations (the horror) and bus/train trips abound. They should get by until the summer but if the ownership isn’t settled by then they’re well and truly fucked.

https://theathletic.com/3165602/2022/03/10/abramovich-chelsea-sanctioned-what-does-that-mean/?source=user_shared_article
 

67YAZ

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Oh look, a Saudi bid for Chelsea. This one is with private money, such that the private/state distinction nominally exists in the kingdom. I still think Boris will steer this towards Candy, but it’s a fine mess his government created by waiting for Roman to put the club up for sale and then moving into seize assets.

 

HowBoutDemSox

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Seems like the rumored bidders include the below, any other names out there? Deadline for best bids is supposedly Friday.
  • Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly teaming up with Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss.
  • Turkish billionaire Muhsin Bayrak.
  • A putatively private Saudi consortium lead by Mohamed Alkhereiji.
  • Jets owner Woody Johnson.
  • The Cubs owning Ricketts family.
  • 76ers part-owner Josh Harris.
  • British real estate developer Nick Candy.
  • Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé.
  • RedBird Capital Partners (would presumably have to divest of their interest in Liverpool they hold through their investment in Fenway Sports Group).
Meanwhile, there was an earlier rumor that Egyptian billionaire Loutfy Mansour was potentially making a bid, but he’s backed off those
 

67YAZ

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  • The Cubs owning Ricketts family.
Meanwhile, there was an earlier rumor that Egyptian billionaire Loutfy Mansour was potentially making a bid, but he’s backed off those
The Ricketts have recruited Ken Griffin to their bid, Illinois’ richest man as the founder of the hedge fund Citadel.This enhances their bid since the core partners can fund this deal on their own in a straight forward way. Plus, given how involved the Ricketts and Griffin are in conservative politics, they are like hall very well networked with the Boris cabinet.
 

Mighty Joe Young

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Seems like the rumored bidders include the below, any other names out there? Deadline for best bids is supposedly Friday.
  • Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly teaming up with Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss.
  • Turkish billionaire Muhsin Bayrak.
  • A putatively private Saudi consortium lead by Mohamed Alkhereiji.
  • Jets owner Woody Johnson.
  • The Cubs owning Ricketts family.
  • 76ers part-owner Josh Harris.
  • British real estate developer Nick Candy.
  • Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé.
  • RedBird Capital Partners (would presumably have to divest of their interest in Liverpool they hold through their investment in Fenway Sports Group).
Meanwhile, there was an earlier rumor that Egyptian billionaire Loutfy Mansour was potentially making a bid, but he’s backed off those
The Liverpool Echo has been reporting that Martin Broughton (ex Pool director at the time of FSG’s takeover) was going to make a bid.
 

67YAZ

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The New Yorker relays the bombshell that Putin directed Roman to buy Chelsea.

Belton even makes the case—on the basis of what she was told by the former Putin ally Sergei Pugachev and two unnamed sources—that Abramovich’s purchase of the Chelsea Football Club was carried out on Putin’s orders. “Putin’s Kremlin had accurately calculated that the way to gain acceptance in British society was through the country’s greatest love, its national sport,” she writes. Pugachev informs her that the objective was to build “a beachhead for Russian influence in the UK.” He adds, “Putin personally told me of his plan to acquire the Chelsea Football Club in order to increase his influence and raise Russia’s profile, not only with the elite but with ordinary British people.”
 

HowBoutDemSox

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Sounds like there will be a shortlist of three bidders selected today or tomorrow, and that group will get the chance to make their case to the government and the EPL:
Raine Group, a U.S. bank overseeing the sale of Premier League club Chelsea, plans to narrow down the shortlist of bidders to three on Monday or Tuesday, sources close to the deal told Reuters.
To move things forward, Reuters has been told that Raine, in consultation with the club, will narrow down the shortlist, with the process slowed by revised bids still coming in.

Over the next few weeks, a preferred buyer or buyers will be submitted to the government who must issue a special licence for any sale and who require evidence that Abramovich will not make any financial gain.

From there it will be up to the prospective buyer to pass the Premier League's Owners' and Directors' Test before completing their takeover.
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/chelsea-bidders-shortlist-be-narrowed-down-three-new-offers-made-2022-03-21/
 

HowBoutDemSox

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More on the sale process:
View: https://mobile.twitter.com/JacobsBen/status/1506244151536459780

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/JacobsBen/status/1506244154778599426

Raine Group will announce Chelsea’s preferred bidders this week. Suitors could find out as early as today but no later than Thursday lunch. Bruce Buck has had input and there is expected to be a shortlist of four. Told there were less than 10 ‘serious’ bids.

The Rickets family/Ken Griffin remain extremely confident. They are best-positioned to secure a quick sale due to their relationship with Raine and previous due diligence on Chelsea.

Saudi Media Group, as reported, made a strong offer. Least likely group to facilitate a fast sale. No intel yet as to whether they’ve made the shortlist but it’s been reiterated (as you’d expect from SMG) that #CFC aren’t put off by (as I put it) ‘the optics’ of a KSA sale.

I think the key point, though, is Chelsea (not Raine) have effectively chosen the preferred bidders so whoever makes the shortlist can assume the club are entirely comfortable with them. The level of club input at this stage is atypical. But then so is the whole sale process…
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

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"I think the key point, though, is Chelsea (not Raine) have effectively chosen the preferred bidders so whoever makes the shortlist can assume the club are entirely comfortable with them. The level of club input at this stage is atypical."

I'm unclear of who "Chelsea" is at this point when they say they've chosen the preferred bidders.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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"I think the key point, though, is Chelsea (not Raine) have effectively chosen the preferred bidders so whoever makes the shortlist can assume the club are entirely comfortable with them. The level of club input at this stage is atypical."

I'm unclear of who "Chelsea" is at this point when they say they've chosen the preferred bidders.
There was a report from the Times that named Bruce Buck, Eugene Tenenbaum and Marina Granovskaia as selecting the preferred bidders. So, probably fair to guess that Abramovich had some input.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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There was a report from the Times that named Bruce Buck, Eugene Tenenbaum and Marina Granovskaia as selecting the preferred bidders. So, probably fair to guess that Abramovich had some input.
But probably also fair to guess that the government has some significant input and de facto veto power. They're not going to just let Roman sell the club to whoever he wants.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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But probably also fair to guess that the government has some significant input and de facto veto power. They're not going to just let Roman sell the club to whoever he wants.
Oh, absolutely, as I understand it the government will have to issue a special license to permit the sale to go through, similar to the special license they’ve issued for the team to continue operating as they are now, so they’ll have absolute veto power. I suspect the idea is that they want a short list for exactly this reason, to make sure that there are multiple options in case the government (or the EPL) decides to veto a particular bid or two.

Edit: here’s more confirmation from the Athletic that both the government and Roman have to approve the winning bid:
Raine is aiming to whittle down the bidders to a shortlist of three or four by the end of this week. Those parties will then be invited to make improved final offers, with a winner chosen by the second week in April.

The bank will then ask the UK government for a second licence — an exemption from the UK’s sanctions rules — to allow the sale of the asset. This effectively gives the Foreign Office and Treasury a veto over the deal, another complicating factor in the process.
Chelsea are not a confiscated asset, though, so Abramovich still has a say in the process and it is understood Raine has been instructed to select the best bid, not necessarily the biggest, with the Russian wanting Chelsea to go to a group or individual with a proven track record, a vision for the club and easy access to funds.
It also identifies four bidders that are seen as having the “inside track”:
In terms of who that might be, there are four bids that appear to have the inside track. They are the syndicate of investors assembled by Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly; a bid led by the Ricketts family, who own the Dodgers’ fellow baseball club Chicago Cubs; an Anglo-British group involving Sir Martin Broughton and Crystal Palace co-owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer; and an offer from NFL side New York Jets’ owner Woody Johnson.

Others with a chance of making the shortlist include a bid funded by British private equity firm Centricus and one led by British property developer Nick Candy, who is backed by South Korean investors. A bid from the Saudi Media Group is not considered to be among the frontrunners.
I wonder if the plan for a quick sale is what’s keeping the Saudi from being considered a front runner. (I also wonder how Woody Johnson’s bid is considered a real contender when they identified criteria like “a proven track record.” Given the choice of being run by the owners of the Dodgers, Cubs, 76ers, or Jets, I think any consideration of past success would probably go towards the Boehly bid first, maybe the Ricketts and Broughton/Harris/Blitzer bid after that, and to Woody Johnson only if the deciding government officials are Spurs and/or Arsenal fans.)
 
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67YAZ

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Athletic reporting that high Nick Candy & Woody Johnson are out of the running.
 

67YAZ

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Four finalists are all familiar American owners/consortiums. I would expect all these folks to run the club similar to the Kroenkes or KSE - willing to put money in under exceptional circumstances, but largely expecting the club to be self-sufficient.

View: https://twitter.com/jacobsben/status/1507428381083770884
The Ricketts adopted FSG’s Red Sox/Fenway plan all the way. I don’t know that they would also try to get Mike Edwards to be their EPL Theo but…the Ricketts have been floating in the media that they would invest in Stamford Bridge similar to the way they overhauled Wrigley. I think they would because, fundamentally, the Ricketts have the same philosophy as John Henry - make investments in long term capital improvements and revenue while the sporting side lives within the revenue generated year to year.

While I don’t like their politics outside of sports, the Ricketts are good stewards of the Cubs and would likely do the same for Chelsea. Ken Griffin is a bit of a wild card - he hasn’t owned a sports team before. Will he be a silent partner to the Ricketts or will he want to get involved?
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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The Ricketts adopted FSG’s Red Sox/Fenway plan all the way. I don’t know that they would also try to get Mike Edwards to be their EPL Theo but…the Ricketts have been floating in the media that they would invest in Stamford Bridge similar to the way they overhauled Wrigley. I think they would because, fundamentally, the Ricketts have the same philosophy as John Henry - make investments in long term capital improvements and revenue while the sporting side lives within the revenue generated year to year.

While I don’t like their politics outside of sports, the Ricketts are good stewards of the Cubs and would likely do the same for Chelsea. Ken Griffin is a bit of a wild card - he hasn’t owned a sports team before. Will he be a silent partner to the Ricketts or will he want to get involved?
A lot of sports team owners seem to have embraced some variant of this model, effectively using the franchise as a hub for local real estate development. From what I understand Chelsea is a very complicated situation because the club doesn't technically own the stadium (which is owned by Chelsea Pitch Owners) and because there's just nowhere to expand or develop in the immediate vicinity of Stamford Bridge.

It'll be interesting to see what happens. Roman's redevelopment plans ended up getting a big complicated by his political circumstances but I got the feeling that even he looked at the price tag (reportedly > 1 billion pounds, just for stadium renovations not for some kind of big additional real estate development) for turning Stamford Bridge into a modern 60k seat stadium and blanched a bit.
 

67YAZ

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A lot of sports team owners seem to have embraced some variant of this model, effectively using the franchise as a hub for local real estate development. From what I understand Chelsea is a very complicated situation because the club doesn't technically own the stadium (which is owned by Chelsea Pitch Owners) and because there's just nowhere to expand or develop in the immediate vicinity of Stamford Bridge.

It'll be interesting to see what happens. Roman's redevelopment plans ended up getting a big complicated by his political circumstances but I got the feeling that even he looked at the price tag (reportedly > 1 billion pounds, just for stadium renovations not for some kind of big additional real estate development) for turning Stamford Bridge into a modern 60k seat stadium and blanched a bit.
I hadn’t seen that price tag. Eye watering, indeed. I expect American owners are going to push hard to tax subsidies of various forms, especially since the classic “ticket price hike” likely won’t fly at Chelsea.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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I’m not even mad going out of the Champions League like that. Epic game and they showed a lot of heart to draw level before it got away from them towards the end.

Oh well, still got the FA Cup semi to look forward to and will need to play well the rest of the season to stay in the top four.
 

67YAZ

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I appreciate that Chelsea fans have called out the Ricketts’ family racism and behavior in ways that Cubs fans have been too apathetic to.

(I understand that it’s old man Ricketts who keeps making racist comments, but the Ricketts have always used the slippery “family” dynamic to present their joint ownership of the Cubs as wholesome while daddy’s bigotry is his personal foible.)
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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That isn't a £4b bid, its a £2.5b bid (which is the same as the others) and a vague promise to invest £1.75b into the club to which nobody can really hold him.

All the owners are claiming they will do a massive stadium rebuild which will certainly be > £1b (that was the estimate Roman got several years ago) and could get up to £1.75b given inflation, commodity prices, supply chain issues, etc.

So the bid seems more show than anything. I think the Boehly group, reportedly the favorites among the established finalists, will still end up being chosen.

Edit: Right on cue.

View: https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1520041002085629952
 
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Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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If this story is true, its a huge spanner in the works.

Not a surprise that Roman might have second thoughts about simply giving up on £1.6b without a legal fight out of love of the club.

My purely speculative theory is that Roman played nice initially because it would burnish his credibility as a go between in talks between Russia and Ukraine, in a context where everybody on the Russian side expected the war to be over in a week or two. And because if the war came to a quick conclusion there was a chance of retaining the club once sanctions were lifted after a deal. Now that the war has dragged out, there is no peace deal in sight, and no role for Roman as peacemaker, he has no incentive to play nice anymore.

The UK government has said all along that they will not allow the loans to Roman to be paid back out of the sale. I'm not sure they can even do that legally given the current sanctions regime anyway.

But the UK government is also politically afraid of letting Chelsea go into administration, both from backlash from the club's supporters and because other clubs in the league probably thinks its bad for the value of the PL in general to have one of its biggest clubs in such trouble.

The current operating license runs out May 31.

View: https://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1521491942374268929
 

HowBoutDemSox

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But wait, Roman is saying that he doesn’t want the loans paid back and the hiccup around the funds is related to some EU sanctions?
Secondly, Mr Abramovich has not asked for any loan to be repaid to him – such suggestions are entirely false – as are suggestions that Mr Abramovich increased the price of the Club last minute. As part of Mr Abramovich’s objective to find a good custodian for Chelsea FC, he has however encouraged each bidder throughout this process to commit investing in the Club – including in the Academy, Women’s team, necessary redevelopment of the stadium as well as maintaining the work of Chelsea Foundation.

Following sanctions and other restrictions imposed on Mr Abramovich by the UK since announcing that the Club would be sold, the loan has also become subject to EU sanctions, requiring additional approvals. That means that the funds will be frozen and subject to a legal procedure governed by authorities. These funds are still earmarked for the Foundation. The Government are aware of these restrictions as well as the legal implications.

To be clear, Mr Abramovich has no access or control of these funds and will not have any access or control of these funds following the sale. Despite the changing circumstances since his initial announcement – he remains committed to finding a good custodian for Chelsea FC and making sure the proceeds go to good causes.
https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2022/05/05/statement-on-behalf-of-mr-abramovich

Who knows. If all is really good to go, we should see the Boehly group announce it’s completed the acquisition soon. If it gets to sometime next week and things are still hanging, then it starts to get real interesting.