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The summer of 2003 is unforgettable for anyone who followed football. He wasn’t the first owner to spend big on his squad in the hope of turning them into winners, but Chelsea did take it to a different level from the moment he turned up. Looking for someone to blame for transfer prices and agent’s fees getting out of control? Abramovich would be a reasonable place to start. To try to compete, fortunes have been spent on players and it has helped make the Premier League the most-watched division in the world. He triggered the arrival of more foreign owners, wanting to enjoy the kudos of listing a Premier League club among their possessions. Still, Abramovich’s impact on the sport, let alone Chelsea, is undeniable. International stars such as Ruud Gullit, Gianfranco Zola, Gianluca Vialli, Marcel Desailly and George Weah played for them, which meant Chelsea were already causing a real stir in the transfer market and making the club an attractive proposition for others to follow. No one can deny he took them on to a much higher status but the club were already on the rise, having lifted five trophies between 1997-2000 and reached the Champions League quarter-finals in 2000.
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One of the common myths is that Chelsea were only competitive once Abramovich took over.
THE SPACE IN BETWEEN ABRAMOVIC CHICAGO PLUS
Plus he was a regular at games (up until 2018), enjoying the goals as much as they did. They saw a man willing to spend a fortune on new players in a world where financial fair play (FFP) rules had yet to come into force (they were brought in by UEFA in 2009). But Chelsea fans didn’t, and still don’t, really care. With Chelsea in a dire situation, no one associated with the club seemed to worry about it either.Ībramovich’s unwillingness to publicly address the speculation added to the question marks over his character outside of the club. There was no fit and proper person test at the time so there wasn’t any scrutiny or investigation into where Abramovich’s wealth had come from, nor his political ties in Russia, before control was handed over.
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Even allowing for inflation, it says a lot about how the club has grown under Abramovich that they have just been acquired for £4.25 billion. Remarkably and unusually, not an inkling of this significant transaction was leaked in the press before it was announced.Ĭhelsea were bought for £140 million (including taking on the club’s debts). Within days, Abramovich had met and agreed terms with outgoing chairman Ken Bates. Influential agent Pini Zahavi was the one who brought the two parties together. While flying into London to complete the deal, Abramovich mistook Fulham’s Craven Cottage for Stamford Bridge. Rivals Tottenham were one of the clubs on his shortlist, although Spurs have always denied suggestions that he declared an interest in acquiring them and was ignored. This wasn’t a pitching process involving lots of bidders like the one Boehly’s consortium has just won.Ībramovich didn’t know much about Chelsea either, he just wanted to own a Premier League club having been seduced by the excitement of Manchester United’s 4-3 victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League a few months before. No one had heard of Abramovich, who primarily made his fortune through the sale of an oil company to the Russian government having bought it from them years earlier on the cheap, when he entered the frame. Chelsea’s win over Liverpool on the last day of the 2002-03 season secured a top-four finish, with Champions League football seen in some quarters as being essential to keeping the club afloat.Īs former director Mark Taylor (1996-2003) told The Athletic, Chelsea wouldn’t have gone bankrupt if they’d missed out on the Champions League, but they would have had to sell players to make ends meet. There was a lot of talk of Chelsea being in a dire financial position back then and the need for a new owner. The speed and secrecy surrounding Abramovich’s purchase of Chelsea in 2003 have been put in even greater perspective by the twists and turns involved in the takeover process of the last three months.
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The Athletic looks back on the past 19 years and some of the dramatic chapters that have made this story such an engrossing and controversial one… The 55-year-old wasn’t at Stamford Bridge for obvious reasons as Chelsea finished their season and his tenure with a rather meaningless 2-1 win over Watford.Įven though there have been a few delays as Todd Boehly’s consortium waits in the wings to officially take over, the deal should be finalised soon enough.Ībramovich’s departure will bring an end to one of the most dramatic periods, for better and for worse, in the history of English football, let alone that of Chelsea. And, with a whimper, Roman Abramovich’s last game as Chelsea owner has been and gone.