The owner of Chelsea since 2003, Roman Abramovich, remains in the charter the man who owns the European champion football club.
But in fact, England took away this title from him because of his involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and closeness to Vladimir Putin. A documentary recently released by the BBC even confirms that Roman Abramovich is the one who manages Vladimir Putin’s personal fortune, which the British authorities say is proof, among other things, that the two men are closer than the oligarch wants to admit. However, until recently, despite the suspicions associated with the acquisition of a fortune, Roman Abramovich had a good popularity rating in the Kingdom thanks to his endless investments in strengthening Chelsea.
One billion euro loss
Enough to make the Blues one of the strongest and most successful teams on the continent, competing for the Premier League title almost every year. But behind this competitive portrait at the sporting level lies a less rosy picture. At a time when Chelsea is in the spotlight due to its near-forced sale by the government, potential buyers willing to shell out billions to get a child back have made sure to do extensive research on the subject. One of them, made by Gérald Edelman. This prominent London-based consulting firm recalled that Chelsea had lost €1.05 billion since its takeover by Roman Abramovich and that the structure completely prevented the future owner from considering on-court or medium-term profits.
Nothing to scare buyers
Admittedly, Covid was there and didn’t help matters, but since 2002 Chelsea have only had four years of profits and therefore 16 years of deficit. The schedule is dizzying, and there is something to scare investors. The current situation, in which the club is already losing millions, between sponsors and box offices that go awry, will not help matters. But the owners and investors are well aware of this, and this, obviously, was also the case with Roman Abramovich, owning a football club is clearly an unprofitable operation.