Government swoop on Chelsea

Roman Abramovich has now been sanctioned by the UK Government. The sale of the club has been put on ice and the club is operating under a 'special licence'. The Premier League was told just 15 minutes before the decision was announced.

A statement from the financial sanctions office at HM Treasury can be found here: https://ofsi.blog.gov.uk/2022/03/10/chelsea-football-club-what-you-need-to-know/

Up to now I thought that the Government wanted to avoid getting directly involved with a football club, but they have been under heavy pressure to 'do something' about oligarchs and Abramovich in particular given his high profile. He has always denied having close links with the Kremlin.

It is possible that the move could be subject to a legal challenge. Chelsea has said that it wants to seek amendments to the licence that would enable it to operate as normally as possible, in particular in relation to expenses that can be allowed for home and away matches. The £20k limit does not look feasible in relation to away Champions League games.

On BBC Radio 5 Simon Stone said: 'BBC Sport has been told the whole idea of these sanctions to stop Abramovich profiting. You have to wonder what this means for the sale of Chelsea Football Club and for Chelsea in general because clearly we’re talking about huge amounts of money the club will lose from its normal operating expenditure.”

The BBC understands that the government is open in the future to considering a licence that would permit the sale of the club, but that would have conditions so that the proceeds would not be able to go to Abramovich. This is because they think the viability of the club is potentially best served if it is sold.

One of the concerns has always been the idea of controversial minister Nadine Dorries being involved in running a football club, but she has put out a statement on Twitter designed to reassure Chelsea fans.

The Chelsea Supporters' Trust says fans must be involved in discussions about the club's future.

It "implores the Government to conduct a swift process to minimise the uncertainty over Chelsea's future, for supporters and for supporters to be given a golden share as part of a sale of the club."

Here are some of the key points from the special licence put in place by the government:

Chelsea are able to pay the wages of all employees, including players and coaching staff.
They can pay "reasonable" costs of travel to and from fixtures but not exceeding £20,000 per game per team.
Pay "reasonable" costs towards hosting home fixtures, not exceeding £500,000 per fixture per team.
Fans who bought season tickets or individual match tickets before 10 March 2022 can attend games.
Broadcasters can broadcast any fixture involving the club.

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion. Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs. An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site. He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned. He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long. What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do

The Political Economy of Football V2

Search This Blog