Roman Abramovich Thread

[Superblue 6,372]

For crying out loud Chels, I just want a quiet week to try and forget about the current situation and enjoy the Cheltenham Festival.

I'll argue all day and night about how I feel the club is being unfairly discriminated against due to Roman's sanctions. It should be very simple for the Government to set up some form of independent regulation to work with us or monitor us or even manage our income and release only when required to help cover our costs during this period so we can carry on operating as normal. What the Government are doing with regards to ticketing policies is nothing short of a disgrace and spits in the faces of the fans who they are adamant they do not want to be punished.

But the club loves to shoot itself in the foot time and time again. 

A statement today that says we have been unable to get Government approval to sell tickets, and we've even been unable to give them away for free during this period would have probably bought us a bit of favour within the media as it is the opposite of what the Government have tried to spin that they are sanctioning Roman and not the club. I've even seen that Peter Bonetti is supposed to have a memorial at Stamford Bridge this weekend and they can't even give tickets out for this. We could have really pushed some of this negativity over to the Government for these restrictions.

But no we love nothing more than to stoke the flames even more. 

At present the fingers have to point to Bruce Buck. He is the club's chairman and the club's Premier League rep. Certainly in recent times with Roman's absence from the day to day running of the club, but even more so now he has to take responsibility for these things. From what I've read and when I've heard him speak I must admit that I don't like him. He comes across as extremely arrogant and I can see why that is also a perceived impression of the club from the outside when he is supposed to be representing us from board level.

There's been too many PR own goals over the years and they just carry on. It is definitely something that needs to be addressed with the new ownership. There's ways of fighting your corner and sometimes you have to play the game, we seem awfully rubbish at doing so.

[cosmicway 1,333]

23 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

For crying out loud Chels, I just want a quiet week to try and forget about the current situation and enjoy the Cheltenham Festival.

I'll argue all day and night about how I feel the club is being unfairly discriminated against due to Roman's sanctions. It should be very simple for the Government to set up some form of independent regulation to work with us or monitor us or even manage our income and release only when required to help cover our costs during this period so we can carry on operating as normal. What the Government are doing with regards to ticketing policies is nothing short of a disgrace and spits in the faces of the fans who they are adamant they do not want to be punished.

But the club loves to shoot itself in the foot time and time again. 

A statement today that says we have been unable to get Government approval to sell tickets, and we've even been unable to give them away for free during this period would have probably bought us a bit of favour within the media as it is the opposite of what the Government have tried to spin that they are sanctioning Roman and not the club. I've even seen that Peter Bonetti is supposed to have a memorial at Stamford Bridge this weekend and they can't even give tickets out for this. We could have really pushed some of this negativity over to the Government for these restrictions.

But no we love nothing more than to stoke the flames even more. 

At present the fingers have to point to Bruce Buck. He is the club's chairman and the club's Premier League rep. Certainly in recent times with Roman's absence from the day to day running of the club, but even more so now he has to take responsibility for these things. From what I've read and when I've heard him speak I must admit that I don't like him. He comes across as extremely arrogant and I can see why that is also a perceived impression of the club from the outside when he is supposed to be representing us from board level.

There's been too many PR own goals over the years and they just carry on. It is definitely something that needs to be addressed with the new ownership. There's ways of fighting your corner and sometimes you have to play the game, we seem awfully rubbish at doing so.

The Johnson government are desperately trying to un-Putin themselves, make it look brexit it was never a Putin job.
The Labour opposition who also support brexit seem happy to follow and their supporters are after all supposed to hate all the rich.

[robsblubot 3,595]

1 hour ago, cosmicway said:

The Johnson government are desperately trying to un-Putin themselves, make it look brexit it was never a Putin job.
The Labour opposition who also support brexit seem happy to follow and their supporters are after all supposed to hate all the rich.

nobody hates the rich 🙂 people aspire to become rich.
The obsenely wealthy on the other hand, like our very own Russian oligarch for example, are detrimental to free markets, democracy, and capitalism in general. However, this would demands its own thread....

For that reason, some people (yours included) just like democracy and actual free markets a bit better than feudalism. If the wealthy have no boundaries, then when do they stop? 

[cosmicway 1,333]

1 minute ago, robsblubot said:

nobody hates the rich 🙂 people aspire to become rich.
The obsenely wealthy on the other hand, like our very own Russian oligarch for example, are detrimental to free markets, democracy, and capitalism in general. However, this would demands its own thread....

For that reason, some people (yours included) just like democracy and actual free markets a bit better than feudalism. If the wealthy have no boundaries, then when do they stop? 

I was referring to the general anti-Chelsea atmosphere of these days and how it works, not the pros and cons of oligarchy.
 

[robsblubot 3,595]

38 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

I was referring to the general anti-Chelsea atmosphere of these days and how it works, not the pros and cons of oligarchy.
 

ah yeah agreed. Pure hypocrisy of course!
Like in the article I posted (from the guardian), the other owners aren't any better (some worse) than Abramovich.

On the other hand, the war changed everything. Go a few pages back and I was warning that our sponsors would vanish. Whether Abramovich had Putin's ear or not is irrelevant -- the mere association would be enough now.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

We as a club are collateral damage (lack of better words perhaps considering the situation in Ukraine that many folk find themselves in) of the whole Roman-Putin links/history which we always knew was there.

Lets not pretend that after the whole Russian poisoning on Sergei Skripal a few years ago also that any sort of international incident involving Russia was always going to bring dire consequences to Roman and more than likely the club.

It sure is going to be interesting to see how this plays out because there is an absolute lot riding on how this sale goes/how it happens etc.

Edited March 16, 2022 by OneMoSalah

[NikkiCFC 8,335]

PM Boris Johnson: “Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are key international partners…We have long, long standing relationships with this part of the world and we need to recognise the very important relationship that we have.”

[gdlk 286]

So if the bid from Saudia Media Group is real, it cant be restricted by government. 

[Superblue 6,372]

10 minutes ago, gdlk said:

So if the bid from Saudia Media Group is real, it cant be restricted by government. 

Reports are suggesting the Government will not be involved in the decision making process of the sale. Their primary concern is the money does not reach Abramovich.

Assuming this is the case it comes down therefore to (1) Raine Group deciding the best deal, and (2) the Premier League approving the ownership.

I think the Premier League one could be the sticking point. Newcastle took a long time to get their ownership approved, time that we don't have (although their links to the Saudi state due to the PIF fund are a bit more obvious and glaring than a privately owned Saudi company).

However, again according to reports, the Raine Group have already put a number of stipulations in place including proof of funds, detailed background information on potential owners, consortium members, etc - this would suggest perhaps they are working with the Premier League to ensure a good amount of due diligence is done at this stage to speed up the whole process. If Saudi Media can prove all the requirements in their bid then I would expect it to be treated and considered in the same vain as anybody else bidding for us and if reports are to be believed they've bid the highest figure for us so far.

The bigger issues will be media driven. They look ready to move on from Chelsea once the sale is done and take aim at Newcastle now. If we become Saudi owned we'll encounter the same issues and criticism even if our ownership shouldn't, at least on paper, be anywhere near as controversial if the ownership isn't linked back to the state. But we all know it doesn't work like that, the media have shown their position on our club in the last week or two.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[Pizy 18,952]

Just anyone other than Woody Johnson at this point. Even if the Boehly consortium doesn’t spend mega money on transfers every summer I think he can at least be trusted to keep us competitive and dangerous near the top of the table.

Woody Johnson would turn us into Arsenal. His cheap ass would let us rot for years and merely be “okay,” spending money only when things get desperate and the fans are revolting.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Blues Forever

[Pizy 18,952]

Ken Griffin, another right wing Trumper asshole. 😒

 

[Tricky Houseman 7]

What's this Ken Griffin like? I'd sooner have an American owner than a Saudi one, lesser of two evils. Depends what they want the club for, it's good he owns a sports team already, in that they should realise that investing in the club brings its rewards both on and off the pitch. Something the Glazer family haven't quite fully grasped. When I say invest I don't just mean money. You need the correct personnel in the right positions, some parts of our club lack this i.e.that ticket fiasco yesterday. So time and expertise are the things you need , money just greased the wheels 

[NikkiCFC 8,335]

This guy Griffin is richest of all Americans mentioned before.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

1 minute ago, NikkiCFC said:

This guy Griffin is richest of all Americans mentioned before.

Bad news along with The Ricketts family.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Blues Forever

[Pizy 18,952]

Ken Griffin is your stereotypical mega rich hedge fund guy. He often makes headlines here in the States for donating huge sums of cash to right wing shitheads like Trump and pushing for the slashing of taxes for the ultra-wealthy so they can line their pockets even more. He is also very well known in real estate circles for buying some of the most expensive properties in the world, including spending a record $238 million on the most expensive flat in history in NYC.

He likes to launder his shady reputation by donating to museums and charities like anyone of his stature. 

Basically, he’s like the mega-rich movie villain who everyone roots against.

 

[NikkiCFC 8,335]

3 minutes ago, Blues Forever said:

Bad news along with The Ricketts family.

From what I read about Ken I like him a lot.

And has some similarities with Roman. Likes sport, has art collection (spent over billion for paintings), divorced a couple of times, had stars singing for him at private parties. A lot of charity work.

Guy donated hundreds of millions to museums. And education as well. Top lad.

 

[Blues Forever 1,232]