Roman Abramovich made a surprising announcement. He put Chelsea FC up for sale, canceled the football club’s debts and promised to donate the proceeds to a foundation to help victims of the war in Ukraine. According to experts, the successful Champions League club could be worth more than 2 billion pounds (2.4 billion euros). Abramovich bought the club in 2003 and made it profitable through large investments. However, it is unclear how high the net proceeds would be, because the club also has a high loan.
Since the Ukraine war, the native Russian, who is considered a Putin friend, has been at the center of allegations. “In the current situation I have therefore made the decision to sell the club as I believe it is in the best interest of the club, the fans, the staff and the club’s sponsors and partners,” Abramovich wrote on Wednesday evening. The sale is the best solution, although it is an “incredibly difficult decision” for him. It was “painful to leave the club in this way”.
The Russian-Israeli billionaire Abramovich, whom critics call an oligarch close to Putin, responded to the increasing pressure with his donation promise. The Labor opposition has been calling for sanctions against Abramovich since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine. Shortly before his public announcement of a billion-dollar donation, the Labor leader had called on the government to act. Starmer called for “all oligarchs” to be sanctioned and their property frozen in the kingdom. He and other deputies also named names, in addition to Abramovich also Oleg Deripaska and Igor Shuvalov.
Abramovich is targeted by the Interior Ministry because he has “ties to the Russian state” and because he is “publicly associated with corrupt activities and practices,” Starmer said. A week ago, the Labor MP quoted these phrases from internal Home Office papers. Labor has been calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to blacklist Abramovich. Johnson accidentally said in Parliament last week that Abramovich was already under British sanctions, but then corrected himself and apologized for his “slip of the tongue”.
The 55-year-old Abramovich entered high society in London when he bought the football club and has gained a lot of notoriety on the island. The Russian, who was born in the Volga region in 1966, made his fortune after the end of the Soviet Union by buying privatized oil and gas companies, some of which he then gave back to the state at a much higher price. In 2013, he sold a majority stake in the Sibneft oil company to Gazprom for $13 billion at the time. He is a major shareholder in the steel group Evraz and the raw materials group Norilsk Nickel.
Roman Abramovich’s villa in Kensington Palace Gardens
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Photo: Philip Plickert
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $14 billion, but it has since shrunk to $12 billion.
Chelsea football club is estimated to be worth at least £2bn, but the club also has a £1.5bn loan Abramovich gave it through one of his companies. According to his own statements, he now wants to forego this loan. Advisor to the Handelsbank Raine has already approached several possible buyers. One of the potential investors, the Swiss-American billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, reacted cautiously. He is currently demanding “far too much”. “He (Abramovitch) is in a panic like all the other oligarchs,” Wyss said.
Abramovich is also apparently trying to sell his villas in London. This includes a large house in Kensington Palace Gardens, within sight of the palace where Prince William and his family live. This historic villa alone, with fifteen living rooms and bedrooms and an underground pool, is worth more than £100m according to property experts. He also owns a three-storey penthouse in the “Chelsea Waterfront” high-rise on the Thames and a house on Eaton Square. He also owns the second largest yacht in the world, the 160-meter Eclipse, which he bought in 2010 for nearly $400 million.
