Roman Abramovich will cast the deciding vote on who buys Chelsea - despite being sanctioned by the UK Government.
The 55-year-old was included in the latest batch of individuals with links to Russian president Vladimir Putin and in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, he has seen his assets frozen. Days before the decision to freeze the billionaire’s funds, he had announced that he was set to sell Chelsea after almost two decades at Stamford Bridge. The government’s subsequent decision has forced the Blues to operate under a strict new licence which has been devised to ensure Abramovich is unable to profit from them.
Despite the sanctions imposed on the Oligarch, he will be allowed to sell the club, with US-based merchant bank Raine Group overseeing the transaction along with the British government. It is believed as many as 10 parties lodged bids for the Premier League giants before Friday night’s 9pm deadline.
Following the end of the first round of bids, Raine will now whittle down the prospective suitors to create a shortlist of three or four potential owners. And the Sun reports that although he won’t receive a penny from the sale, Abramovich will have the final say on which bid is successful.
That is according to British billionaire Nick Candy who has lodged an offer to buy the club from the Russian, believed to be in the region of £2.5billion. Candy told the Sun: "Although it’s a sanctioned club, Roman gets the decision on where it goes. People might not like that, but it’s his club still - it’s sanctioned - but it’s his club."
Chelsea supporter Candy has made it clear that if he is successful, he will put supporters front and centre, with the idea of offering them a Golden Share. This would give fans the power to veto decisions which would affect the heritage of the club following their ill-advised decision to join the European Super League last year.
He added: “All I care about is first of all, whoever ends up with the club has got to put the fans front and centre and the fan-led review needs to be adopted in its best principle and that Chelsea has a chance to be the golden standard of that.
"Number two is I think that football clubs owned just by one person like the Glazers is a bad model, and not just for the fans, but for the club.
"If you can have the best investor from Africa, India, America, Asia as your cornerstone partners and they use the fans in that part of the world to make money for the club back at home, fantastic!
"And why can’t we have offshoots of the club in South Korea or Los Angeles or wherever it is. Manchester City have probably done the best job in the planet of the feeder clubs. And we’ve got to do that as well. That’s because they run it properly, they’re amazing."
A statement from the Chelsea Supporters’ Group confirmed they had held positive talks with prospective buyers and outlined their own plans for moving forward. “The CST has played an important role over these difficult weeks,” the statement reads. “Through engaging with MPs and the Government we have ensured the voice of Chelsea fans has been heard at the table when decisions have been made.”
