Roman Abramovich Thread

[Fernando 6,488]

The thing about the ricketts is this part: 

People close to the consortium confirmed it would be an all-equity bid, with no new debt being placed onto Chelsea's balance sheet.

We don't want another Glazer story so because of this, the Ricketts are leading the race. Now question on my mind is if Roman is wiping the debt how he will do that since he can't do nothing as he is frozen? 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,519]

There is what they say, and there is what they do.

The Chicago Cubs currently carry $425 million in debt for purposes of the Debt Service Rule.

 

[MoroccanBlue 5,320]

Exclusive: Ken Griffin will fly to London with Tom and Laura Ricketts to speak with Chelsea officials this week. Griffin had previously remained in the background #cfc https://t.co/3hmOCL50hY

— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) April 5, 2022

[OhForAGreavsie 5,898]

6 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

That's a bit silly. A deal breaker because of their political affiliation?

If you think supporting Dopey Donnie is just a political affiliation you need to wake up. I repeat, absolute and total deal breaker.

Edited April 5, 2022 by OhForAGreavsie

[MoroccanBlue 5,320]

18 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

If you think supporting Dopey Donnie is just a political affiliation you need to wake up. I repeat, absolute and total deal breaker.

Noted. No republican shall own Chelsea football club. 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,898]

17 minutes ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Noted. No republican shall own Chelsea football club. 

Let's keep it honest here.

[Vesper 29,022]

15 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Noted. No republican shall own Chelsea football club. 

non sequitur

no one said absolutely no Tories or US Republicans (most billionaires are somewhat RW in orientation, with some notable exceptions of course)

I was completely oki with Nick Candy, for instance, and Lord Coe, etc. who are Tories

But there is difference between being oriented to the right and then being huge Trumper activists, elected batshit cray RWers (Governor Pete Ricketts, who is, I admit, supposedly not involved, although I want to see that in writing), and donators/fundraisers of hundreds of millions for nefarious political means.

[Superblue 6,372]

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,519]

This is the slowest quick sale I have seen. 

[OneMoSalah 8,785]

On 04/04/2022 at 16:18, MoroccanBlue said:

There seems to be a misinterpretation. The father isn't involved in the bid and the children have distanced themselves from him. 

It will still dishearten a lot of fans, the father ‘may not’ be involved and they may have ‘distanced’ themselves from him but where do you think their wealth came from? They may have earned their places at other company’s but they own the baseball team through a family trust with their parents also as owners. I would assume that same family trust will be financing their bid for ownership here. Unless they’ve got that much sitting about under a mattress. 

So whatever way you look at it, their family name is bad news and an association with their father will always be there.

On 05/04/2022 at 15:29, MoroccanBlue said:

That's a bit silly. A deal breaker because of their political affiliation?

Unless these lot are far right activists  I can't imagine why someone's political preference has any bearing on how well they can run this football club. 

The irony is the club is only really being sold due to our current owners past ties with Vladimir Putin, which are mainly/more than likely political. So I can absolutely see why this would be a deal breaker to some people because now we are suffering from having a current owner who has a political past with somebody who is morally a very questionable person.

3 hours ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

This is the slowest quick sale I have seen. 

Well the groups have to the 11th now.

The biggest hold up will be the Government ensuring no cash goes into Roman’s pocket also. Wait and see.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,519]

Now it is May! This transfer window is going to be fucked!

 

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,519]

 

[Vesper 29,022]

UEFA adopts new regulations to replace financial fair play

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220407-uefa-adopts-new-regulations-to-replace-financial-fair-play-1

Nyon (Switzerland) (AFP) – UEFA on Thursday approved new licensing and "sustainability" regulations to replace its existing Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, allowing European clubs to make bigger losses than before while bringing in caps on spending on wages and transfers.

As expected, European football's governing body decided to overhaul the FFP rules that were introduced in 2010 in order to reduce spiralling club debts across the continent.

FFP's limitations had been exposed by the emergence of state-held superpowers like Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, while huge losses incurred by the coronavirus pandemic left poorer clubs with little room for manoeuvre.

"The biggest innovation will be the introduction of a squad cost rule to bring better cost control in relation to player wages and transfer costs," UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin announced following a meeting of the body's executive committee.

UEFA will now allow clubs to report losses of 60 million euros ($65.5m) over three years rather than 30 million euros previously, and the permitted figure will even reach 90 million euros for a club "in good financial health".

However, that relaxation of the rules is combined with the new ceilings on wage spending.

There was never any possibility of bringing in a specific salary cap like in North American sports because UEFA has 55 member countries and must contend with European Union and national labour and competition laws.

Yet under UEFA's new regulations clubs will be forced to limit spending on player and staff wages, transfers and agents fees to 70 percent of total revenues by 2025/26.

The ceiling will drop as current contracts expire: 90 percent of club income in 2023/24, followed by 80 percent the season after and then 70 percent.

"Before the pandemic, the average ratio was under 70 percent," said Andrea Traverso, UEFA's director of financial sustainability.

Then the health crisis led to losses over two seasons of about seven billion euros, causing that ratio to rise.

Financial and sporting penalties

Ceferin said breaches of the new rules "will result in predefined financial penalties and sporting measures".

The size of the fines will depend on the extent to which clubs have crossed the threshold, with that money then redistributed among the well-behaved -- in line with the idea of a "luxury tax" championed in the past by Ceferin.

Serious or repeated breaches will lead to sporting punishments, with Traverso saying these could range from bans on using certain players and limits on squad sizes, to points deductions in the new-look Champions League group phase to be introduced from 2024.

He added that discussions are ongoing about the possibility of teams being demoted from one European competition to another, for example from the Champions League to the Europa League.

The fate of FFP in its existing guise was sealed when Manchester City successfully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in 2020 to have a two-year ban from European competition overturned.

Abu Dhabi-owned City had been accused of deliberately inflating the value of income from Emirati sponsors Etisalat and Etihad Airways to meet FFP regulations.

State-owned clubs such as City and Qatar-backed PSG may still find themselves in a position to spend far more than their rivals, despite the new 70 percent rule.

Meanwhile, traditional giants like Barcelona and Juventus -- two of the main backers of the failed European Super League project -- could see their ambitions still restricted by the need to reduce debts.

The new regulations come in at a time when elite-level football is dominated by a smaller and more select group of clubs than ever, but Traverso said improving competitive balance required more than just financial measures.

Now that UEFA has announced its new budgetary rules after months of consultations, he said the body was "going to open a new chapter and move on to other measures".

[ZAPHOD2319 4,519]

 

[whats happening 1,534]

i wish steve ballmer was one of the buyers.

Edited April 8, 2022 by whats happening

[Superblue 6,372]

31 minutes ago, Hermione said:

This is good addition but need a powerful billionaire to complete it.

Just because they are billionaires doesn't mean they're going to open up their wallets. Joe Lewis is a billionaire, I don't see him overstretching Spurs. Same with Kroenke at Arsenal. 

Boehly, Wyss and now Walter combined are worth around the same, if not more than Roman so we're hardly looking at desolate buyers and I would expect there is further financial backing if needed within the consortium.

They don't need the deepest pockets, the strategy is more important. Especially with the new FFP being mapped out by UEFA, the keys now will be finding better value in the transfer market and driving revenues higher to be able to spend more. It's probably the closest thing we're going to get to a salary or transfer cap in football (albeit it will be driven by individual club's own revenue as opposed to a blanket cap across the board).

I have liked this Boehly bid from the beginning. He comes across very well, his track record with other sports teams speaks volumes and there has been no controversy about his bid. It's clear Matt Law is a mouthpiece for them through the media but that's worked in his favour too because he's not had the controversy of the Ricketts but his bid has remained fairly transparent unlike Broughton and Pagliuca.

I like the ideas being suggested that Boehly and Walter feel they can bring a number of strategies and ideas from the Dodgers across to Chelsea with regards to data analysis, recruitment, etc. As much as we'll all be indebted to Roman for where he's taken Chelsea over the years, there is no question that there has still at times been frustration with some poor recruitment and a lack of foresight and longer term planning. Someone coming in with fresh ideas to implement on areas perceived as a weakness from the outside can only be a positive.

I genuinely believe this bid will boil down to this one or the Ricketts and whilst I'm open to giving the Ricketts bid a chance if it was deemed successful by the decision makers, my choice based on information currently at hand would be this one.

[Magic Lamps 11,668]

41 minutes ago, whats happening said:

i wish steve ballmer was one of the buyers.

what makes you think he would be a good owner apart from being filthy rich? The way he hit a wall with windows mobile (despite producing really beautiful phones) and zune despite having all the necessary resources to succeed does not exactly inspire confidence in marketing a brand.

[whats happening 1,534]

32 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

what makes you think he would be a good owner apart from being filthy rich? The way he hit a wall with windows mobile (despite producing really beautiful phones) and zune despite having all the necessary resources to succeed does not exactly inspire confidence in marketing a brand.

he's a really good owner in the nba so far. not shying away from paying tens of millions of dollars in tax just to have the best possible team. also is building a new arena and overall seems really invested in the team, some will say he is obsessed...

 

 

besides that, he so far made all the best decisions to hire more than competent people in the front office who know how to run a basketball franchise and make all the basketball decisions. unlike some other owners he does not act like someone who knows everything about basketball, he just pays the money and trusts in the front office people to handle that.