Roman's plan in ruins as the fans revolt! Chelsea lose fight for stadium ownership By Sami Mokbel and Neil Ashton Last updated at 11:55 PM on 27th October 2011 Roman Abramovich's plan to leave Stamford Bridge was in turmoil on Thursday night after Chelsea fans staged a revolt against his bid to buy the land on which the stadium stands. Amid accusations that the club were seeking to rig the vote, their billionaire owner received a huge snub in his effort to relocate Chelsea to a new stadium. Home sweet home: Stamford Bridge has been Chelsea's ground since 1905 In a highly charged meeting, which looked likely to be abandoned at one stage, Abramovich failed to win enough votes to gain the freehold to the ground. Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO), who own the freehold to the west London ground, held an extraordinary general meeting to decide whether to sell to Abramovich. Disappointment: Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck But the club fell well short of the 75 per cent of the shareholders' vote for Abramovich to secure the land. Angry CPO shareholders, wary of the relocation plans, hit out at Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck and chief executive Ron Gourlay. At one stage it seemed the meeting and vote would be adjourned owing to accusations of vote-rigging after Chelsea bought £200,000 worth of shares ahead of the ballot. In the end, Chelsea could manage only 61.6 per cent (3,569 votes), which left them facing an uphill battle to push through their plans for a new stadium. Buck said: 'Roman's disappointed but he respects that Chelsea Pitch Owners have spoken. We always knew that getting 75 per cent was going to be very difficult. That's just the nature of the vote.' Aiming high: Chelsea want to play in front of 60,000 supporters every week However, Buck insisted that he feels the club are edging closer to persuading CPO to part with that critical freehold. 'If we look at the results today, obviously we are disappointed but we feel there are some positives,' added Buck. 'Maybe you didn't get this through the tone of the meeting but, from discussions over the last few weeks, we are convinced that the large body of shareholders, of CPO and fans, recognise it may be necessary to move.' Blow: Roman Abramovich is keen to have a bigger stadium Talking about possible sites for a new stadium, Buck added: 'It's not stay at any cost - that's one major threshold we got over. The other is that Earl's Court would not be the only site that is satisfactory to them. 'We believe that's also very important info for us. We are over those two hurdles.' Speaking about the attacks from sections of the 700-strong meeting, Buck added: 'We always knew this was going to be a very emotional meeting because it's an emotional issue. I was disappointed with some of the Twitter-type, Facebook-type website-type personal attacks, but luckily they were very few.' Former Chelsea chairman Ken Bates, who called Abramovich's bid to buy the freehold from the CPO as a 'land grab' in yesterday's Sportsmail, saluted the 'loyal fans'. Bates, who set up the CPO in 1993 to safeguard the Bridge's future and who sold the club to Abramovich in 2003, said: 'The new board thought they would be able to steamroller this through and they got it wrong. 'This is a major triumph for the loyal supporters. The club have been through so much and that's why I wanted Chelsea's future to be in the hands of their supporters.' iReader http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2054201/Chelsea-lose-Stamford-Bridge-fight.html
Of course the Chelsea fans are revolting.........in fact they are bloody awful Boom boom.......I will be appearing here all week !!
Actually Northolt i reckon that vote had some bearing on QPR and the White City plot. I for one am glad that the fans said NO. Chelsea need to stay at SB because that is where they are from. If the vote had been YES and they bought White City/BBC plot then i think that would have been hell on us
Wuld they have been allowed to have a new ground so near to a rival? Im thinking along the lines of the Oylmpic Stadium and although leyton Orent are closer to it than wets ham or spuds, they claim there is some ruling which sould stand regarding trading/ Don't understand t meself...maybe smeone can explain.
AS you said DL football is changing and at the end of the day if Roman said you are going to move to Luton you would be going. The fans are the last thing RA is thinking about and you are deluded if you think different. If Chelsea were the best team in the country , sorry, and won Champs lge every year, sorry again, in a 60K stadium at White City then fans would soon forget about SB. And after reading some of the recent Chelsea fans views, i think within 5-8 years it would be a new generation who would never even heard of SB. Money talks mate and the money men have their own idea about the clubs they own.
I doubt it. Roman seems a reasonable and negotiable person, he tends not to make knee jerk reactions. 61% isn't that bad and only a further 15% or so would be needed. Thankfully the strong stance of the CPO has rubbished claims that the supporters are JCL's. The CPO is a setup like know other and the fans actually own the club. I think it's magnificent. Ironically, we are probably the last and only club that actually has a say as to if and when we move.
If we move from Loftus Road it better not be to one of those boring flatpack stadiums, aka pretty much every team that has recently moved has gone to. A One Tier Ikea Bowl with no redeeming features to distinguish it from any other new build stadium would be the pits. Although if we move I can see this happening 100%
I heard the guy on the Radio who voted no speaking yesterday. He said they cant move to White City because its too near to QPR. That surely means it is ours for the taking, if we go for it?
Why would we want to move to White City?? We would be near you lot for starters which wouldn't be nice. The vote wasn't a success as we haven't been given reassurance about where the stadium would be. That said I would want to leave stamford bridge either to earls court or battersea.
Chelsea go to battersea.....apologies but would really really want to go to Battersea Drogs Stadia...........better go can hear the nurse calling me
Chelsea fined £20,000 by FA for ref rage at Bosingwa red card in defeat to QPR By Sportsmail Reporter Last updated at 4:51 PM on 28th October 2011 Chelsea have been fined £20,000 by the Football Association after admitting a charge of 'failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion' in last week's Barclays Premier League match against QPR. The fine was imposed after Chelsea players surrounded referee Chris Foy following Jose Bosingwa's red card during the 1-0 defeat at Loftus Road. Man in the middle: Chelsea players surround referee Chris Foy at Loftus Road The FA announced the fine in relation to the incident and they also asked Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas to explain his post-match comments to the media about Foy and the assistant referees. The FA said they are still considering Villas-Boas' response and have yet to decide whether to take any action. iReader
I don't think the return game is until late in the season, things will be a lot different then. I can't see the players taking it personally, they're all professionals and will treat every game as a must win
