Initially, at least, the statement was bewildering. Roman Abramovich was “giving trustees of Chelsea’s charitable Foundation the stewardship and care of Chelsea FC.” It was soon clarified that he remains the owner and that there were numerous complications about passing the club over to its trustees. But the question remained: What was going on?
Clearly, this means something. It’s probably an attempt to distance the club from Abramovich should he become the subject of sanctions imposed by the U.K. government—of course, he has always downplayed his links to Vladimir Putin, and there seems, at the moment, to be only a slim possibility that Chelsea could be involved. After all, while Chelsea has clearly benefited enormously from Abramovich’s investment—he has loaned the club £1.5 billion without taking repayment—it would take a government even more out of step with public opinion than this one to risk bankrupting the European champion.
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