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'Chicken game' at Chelsea

The chair of the Commons culture, media and sport committee has said that there is a game of chicken going on between the Government and Roman Abramovich over the sale of Chelsea.  Julian Knight predicted, 'Things will go down to the wire.'

Government officials are demanding a 'legally watertight' guarantee that Abramovich will not lay claim to roughly £1.5bn of the sale proceeds.  The club borrowed the sum from a Jersey entity linked to Abramovich.

Officials fear that a 'gentleman's agreement' is not enough to prevent the Jersey vehicle, Camberley International Investments, from attempting to be repaid.   The identities of the ultimate beneficiaries of Camberley are unclear but government officials suspect that it is set up for people linked to Abramovich such as his children.

Abramovich and his allies have denied that he wants the debt to be repaid.  They said the full amount would go to a charitable foundation.

Mike Penrose, former chief executive of Unicef UK, said that Chelsea chair Bruce Buck approached him to set up the foundation. 

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