he still owns it. It’s stewardship he’s handing over. In other words someone else will be the top guy for now…. But he will return. https://news.sky.com/story/chelsea-owner-roman-abramovich-to-relinquish-stewardship-of-club-12552700Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to relinquish stewardship of club
nothing really mate. Just that he won’t be making the decisions for a while. Given he’s banned from the Uk that’s not really news I’d guess.
he's making sure that the Authorities don't get their hands on his assets (chelsea) when the **** is over he will expect to come back and step in where he left
Abramovic was in the Putin gang of thugs that effectively seized control of Russian assets and factories back in the days of early communism dissolution.
This. It's just a ploy to distance himself from the club and safeguard the assets. He'll still be in control, just on the end of a telephone - until such time as its safe for him to return more visibly. Just a sign of how corrupt some of these people are.
Its a bit more fundamental than that though as he won’t be willing/able to fund the club and they will have to become self-sufficient. While they have made attempts to make the club profitable he has still put in about 120million quid over the last 5 years. If they have bought any players on staggered payment deals they may have problems paying future installments without selling other players to fund this.
Doesn't that depend on him being sanctioned? So far all he has said is that he is handing over stewardship. To be honest, I'm not sure anyone knows what his statement meant as it could very well be meaningless and just a PR exercise.
I can’t see why he wouldn’t be sanctioned. He is one of the 50 Oligarchs who are supposedly looking after Putin’s money for him. He was handed shares in Sibneft for a pittance compared to their realistic value. Presumably some f that money belongs to Putin.
I completely agree that he should be sanctioned. However, the government has been very weak in the people it has sanctioned. The UK have left off a number of notable companies and individuals from their list of sanctions that the Americans and other European countries have included in sanctions. Sadly, it does look like a lot of the individuals and companies who have been left off the UK list have links to funding UK politicians and one of the Russian companies left off the list has a Tory peer sitting on it's board. It leaves me with very little confidence that we will do the right thing.
It would probably be illegal for them to pay him back while sanctions applied. Even if they were allowed to, they could write the cheque but he would have great difficulty in cashing it with his accounts frozen.
Exactly, so is that debt effectively written off? Could actually free their funds up If they don't owe him. But is that legal in terms of international law? And then what happens if/when sanctions are lifted? Very complicated scenario.
