Roman Abramovich is finally set to interrupt his silence on the £2.5 billion sale of Chelsea to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital three years ago.
The previous Chelsea owner stays sanctioned by the Government as a result of his alleged links to controversial Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Abramovich was a preferred figure across his 19-year spell in west London, with the club having fun with unprecedented success under his ownership.
The 58-year-old Russian owned Chelsea from 2003 to 2022, with the Blues winning two Champions League titles and five Premier League trophies.
Abramovich sold Chelsea to American consortium BlueCo – led by Boehly and Clearlake Capital – after he was sanctioned by the Government following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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He has now spoken for the primary time about his sale of the club in a book called ‘Sanctioned’ by Nick Purewal, which will likely be released this summer.
Abramovich has not publicly addressed the sale of Chelsea up to now and it’s extremely rare for the billionaire to participate in interviews of any kind.
Chelsea are yet to win any trophies since BlueCo replaced Abramovich and a number of the club’s fans have expressed anger towards their latest owners.
In March 2024, a piece of Chelsea supporters launched a ‘get them out’ campaign against Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
BlueCo completely rebuilt Chelsea’s squad after Abramovich’s exit, replacing various established stars with young wonderkids on massive contracts, spending over £1 billion on latest players.
They sacked head coach Thomas Tuchel in 2022, a choice which left many fans unhappy after he led Chelsea to Champions League glory.
Tuchel was replaced by Graham Potter in a failed experiment and the appointment of Mauricio Pochettino didn’t work out either but Chelsea have since enjoyed somewhat of an upturn since Enzo Maresca got here in.
Maresca is hoping to guide Chelsea back into the Premier League top 4 this term after they finished twelfth and sixth in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Chelsea currently sit sixth again in the present 2024-25 campaign, three points off the highest 4 with five top-flight fixtures remaining.
The Blues are the favourites to win this season’s Conference League title, with Chelsea set to face Djurgårdens IF within the semi-finals next month.
Last month, meanwhile, The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust called for the Premier League to research Boehly as a result of his reference to ticket resale site Vivid Seats.
The corporate is known as an ‘unauthorised ticket website’ by the Premier League, with fans warned to ‘exercise extreme caution’ in the event that they use the web site.
The US organisation sells Premier League tickets, often for much greater than face value.
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