"I have always made my decisions with the interests of the club at heart (and) in the current situation, I have made the decision to sell the club," Abramovich said in a statement released by the Blues shortly after 7:00 p.m. ( 6:00 p.m. GMT).
An announcement which confirmed the information in the press for a few days, when the pressure had considerably increased on the 55-year-old billionaire, even if he is not yet subject to financial sanctions from the European Union. or the British authorities, but who today pays for his closeness to Vladimir Putin.
By buying the London club in 2003 for 140 million pounds (168 M EUR), Abramovich had been a pioneer among the wealthy foreign patrons of the Premier League.
He was followed by his compatriot Alisher Usmanov, who entered the capital of Arsenal in 2007 to go up to 30%, before selling everything in 2018 with a huge capital gain.
American investors, such as the Glazer family in Manchester United, from 2005, and Fenway Sport Group in Liverpool (2010), followed suit, followed a little later by the Emiratis in Manchester City or more recently the Saudis in Newcastle. .
A charity fund for Ukraine
Often criticized for its lack of zeal in its procedure for vetting new investors, the Premier League has built its European domination on hundreds of millions of pounds arriving mainly from abroad over the past 15 years.
Roman Abramovich, Russian owner of Cheslea, at Stamford Bridge, May 8, 2017 Ian KINGTON AFP/Archives
But the war in Ukraine and the financial sanctions taken against major players in the Russian oligarchy have considerably increased the pressure on English football.
Abramovich had tried to save what could be saved by entrusting the daily management of the club to the six directors of his charitable foundation on Saturday, before deciding to sell.
"Please believe that it was an incredibly difficult decision to make and it pains me to leave the club in this way," he further explained, assuring that he would not ask for the reimbursement of the 1.5. bn GBP (1.8 bn EUR) in loans that he has granted to the club over the years, but that he would not sell off the club either.
He also promised that the "net proceeds" of the sale would be donated to a charitable foundation for the benefit of "all the victims of the war in Ukraine".
Hansjorg Wyss, one of Switzerland's richest men, told the Blick newspaper on Wednesday morning that he had been offered to buy Chelsea.
"I still leave myself four or five days of reflection", added Wyss, specifying that three other people had been surveyed and that if he were to launch, it would be "with a consortium of six to seven investors".
Already suitors for Chelsea
Among the other potential buyers is, according to the daily The Times, the richest man in Great Britain, Jim Radcliffe, boss of Ineos, who had already considered an offer in 2019 before turning to OGC Nice, in France, and Todd Boehli, an American billionaire, co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, according to the New York Times.
Another Russian billionaire involved in the Premier League, even if he has no stake in a club, Alisher Usmanov was banned from English football on Wednesday, the day after his withdrawal from the International Fencing Federation, which he presided.
Everton announced on Wednesday "suspending" its sponsorship deals with USM, Megafon and Yota, three of the companies in which the Russian-Uzbek tycoon has significant holdings.
After selling his shares in Arsenal, he became one of the main backers of Everton, bought in 2016 by the Iranian Farhad Moshiri, with whom he was associated with the capital of the Gunners.
The Toffees training center had thus been renamed USM Finch Farm and Usmanov also held an exclusive option for 30 M GBP (36 M EUR) to give the name of one of his companies to the new stadium under construction.
The great uncertainty about the conflict in Ukraine makes it impossible to make any credible predictions about its long-term fallout, but English football is already feeling the shock waves.
© 2022 AFP