15 minutes ago, Sindre said:

He said net proceeds mate.

So you cover all your loans, costs and expenses first. If you sell a house for a million and give all proceeds to charity you give a million, if you have a 950.000 loan on that house and want to give the net proceeds to charity you give 50.000.

It’s far from as simple as that.

 

Was he putting Fordsham up for sale ? Or is he putting up the stand alone company that is Chelsea FC

 

The debt held in Fordshams book is circa £1.5 billion the debt held on Chelsea’s book is circa £30 million.

Fordsham own other assets on top of the football club.

1 minute ago, enigma said:

Yeah, If the media thought the game vs Burnley was bad, tonight could be rough. I'd imagine plenty of, and even louder chants for Abramovich. I don't condone it, but I also understand their frustrations. Roman isn't Putin, he didn't make the decision to invade Ukraine. At the moment he is being punished due to association to Putin. 

The evidential threshold for sanctions is pretty high and there will have been hours and hours of legal advice and counsel before the decision was taken. It is highly unlikely that he is being sanctioned purely because of association with Putin. There will be evidence of much closer relationships than that, likely one that Roman will have benefited from (either through political access or money)

1 minute ago, nonotnowjim said:

The evidential threshold for sanctions is pretty high and there will have been hours and hours of legal advice and counsel before the decision was taken. It is highly unlikely that he is being sanctioned purely because of association with Putin. There will be evidence of much closer relationships than that, likely one that Roman will have benefited from (either through political access or money)

You think too highly of this government, as if there wasn't enough evidence to know that his government act on a whim, and if anything you can be sure that there were drinks involved when deciding on this.

2 minutes ago, terraloon said:

It’s far from as simple as that.

 

Was he putting Fordsham up for sale ? Or is he putting up the stand alone company that is Chelsea FC

 

The debt held in Fordshams book is circa £1.5 billion the debt held on Chelsea’s book is circa £30 million.

Fordsham own other assets on top of the football club.

There was a lot of ambiguity to Romans statement, so nobody really knows.

He said "net proceeds", which in normally means the amounts received by a seller after deducting all costs and expenses, such as legal fees, brokerage fees and taxes, from the sale cost of an asset. He also said he would write off the loans. As such, it can be considered that Roman was willing to donate all the money (lets say £2bn), minus legal fees and expenses. But....that is hard to believe, and his statement left a lot of room for interpretation (and no legal basis to enforce it)

1 minute ago, RMH said:

You think too highly of this government, as if there wasn't enough evidence to know that his government act on a whim, and if anything you can be sure that there were drinks involved when deciding on this.

Maybe - but as I mentioned before, my work has touched on UK gov sanctions in the past.... and in my experience, sanctions were never imposed on a whim, but only after agonising hours of back and forth.

Let's just see what happens over the coming days and weeks. No need to panic quite yet.

Hard to get my head around all of this. I have never felt so uncertain about our future since I started seriously following the club. We have been turned upside down overnight.

Also, and I don't mean to sound horrible, but I am getting sick of people telling me to think about what is happening in Ukraine. I know what is happening in Ukraine is horrible, I'm not an idiot, but I can be concerned about more than one thing. You can't just tell me not to care about something I have dedicated a lot of my life to. Chelsea football club have been part of some of the best and worst moments of my life, I can't just switch off any feelings I have for the club because of the horrible things happening to the Ukrainian people right now. I'm not having any of the "it's just a football club" rubbish, it's not just a football club to us, it's a big part of what has shaped our lives.

7 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Maybe - but as I mentioned before, my work has touched on UK gov sanctions in the past.... and in my experience, sanctions were never imposed on a whim, but only after agonising hours of back and forth.

Have you worked with this gov? Because the president wasn't interested in cobra meetings, changed opinion from one day to another, not following recomendations from scientists, and was more into breaking his rules than in leading... So no, I'm not confident that in this precise moment they have given it much more thought than to Brexit agreement or covid pandemic.

Unconfirmed reports that Ken Bates has been spotted knocking on downing street number 10 door with a pound in his hand...

3 minutes ago, RMH said:

Have you worked with this gov?

To answer your question - Yes

As for the rest of your post, you are of course entitled to your opinion. I am only sharing my experience of  work in UK sanctions, which has (again in my experience) always come with an extremely high evidential threshold, and only after substantial legal and policy advice.

Edited March 10, 20224 yr by nonotnowjim

Here is Chelsea Football Club facing possible extinction and Brentford are crying about only having half their allocation for their game at the Bridge. c**ts

29 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Can the government sell the club then? And after the sale goes through what if RA sues them and wins? What happens to the new ownership? The potential buyers would want to have guarantees none of that nonsense will potentially get back to them, no one wants to spend a fortune on an asset with so much baggage attached to it.

1) Yes

2) Doesn't matter, Roman can't sue the government for actions to stop a war from happening. It will not look good in court

3) New ownership stays anyway. Probably Roman will befriend them in some capacity to be allowed to watch Chelsea games in the future but that's just assumptions on my part. Billionaires tend to know each other

4) I'm not too sure but from the fatcats I've worked with, they tend to have teams weigh pros and cons before buying and CFC's pros massively outweigh the cons

1 minute ago, Deino said:

1) Yes

2) Doesn't matter, Roman can't sue the government for actions to stop a war from happening. It will not look good in court

3) New ownership stays anyway. Probably Roman will befriend them in some capacity to be allowed to watch Chelsea games in the future but that's just assumptions on my part. Billionaires tend to know each other

4) I'm not too sure but from the fatcats I've worked with, they tend to have teams weigh pros and cons before buying and CFC's pros massively outweigh the cons

1) No - They have not seized his assets at this time, so they cannot sell the club unilaterally at this time.

2,3,4 moot - as the club cannot at this time be sold without Romans permission.

Just feel completely drained and depressed by this. It doesn't feel right that something that is so important to all of us can be put in such jeopardy because of political actions completely beyond the fans control.

Might sound naive of me, too, but I wasn't expecting the sheer level of vitriol expressed not just by rival fans but seemingly by the entire footballing media over this. They really want not just Abramovich but Chelsea fans in particular to suffer for this. Seen far too many comments holding us personally responsible as a fanbase for whatever ills they accuse Roman of.

I perhaps stupidly assumed that, if it came down to a point where the very club's existence seemed threatened, most football fans regardless of allegiance would take a step back and realise that Chelsea fans at least deserve a team to cheer for. But nope, the majority seem to be genuinely hoping for our liquidation as an entity. Seems like all the talk last year after the ESL about how football clubs are "vital parts of local heritage" and that they shouldn't be harmed by controversies of their ownership, has gone completely out the window. Maybe I'm alone in this but I had always thought that if Spurs or Arsenal were ever under such serious threat as we are now I would NEVER wish for them to go under. I have footballing rivalries with these teams and on some level "hate" them in a sporting sense, but at the end of the day they're fans just as us and I want to be in competition with them. In times like this you realise that feeling isn't returned when Chelsea is involved.

Been particularly astonished to even see Man City fans gloating in this, as if they are in denial of the fact that this sort of step being taken against Abramovich opens the door to future seizures of any football club which is under "dodgy" ownership. The American-owned elite clubs (Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool) will be fine no matter what, but Man City and Newcastle fans in particular have to realise now that they have a target on their backs, say if at any point in the next 10 years this government or the next one takes a harder line against Middle Eastern regimes and their wealthy residents.

A cynical part of me wonders if the government actually is aware of how badly this might screw the club over and deliberately sought the most damaging possible option, because they've banked on the idea that rival fans and even people without an interest in football will celebrate our collapse. I would have understood, to some extent, going down the path of seizing the club if Abramovich had been refusing to sell, but considering a sale was already well in motion and likely would have been concluded in a matter of weeks, this feels deliberately calculated to cause damage to Chelsea long-term as an entity.

5 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Unconfirmed reports that Ken Bates has been spotted knocking on downing street number 10 door with a pound in his hand...

Trust you axman2526 lol.

2 hours ago, Peterinblackpool said:

While I do accept this is a real calamity for chelsea, whose fans have nothing to do with the war, we must see  the bigger picture, the nation that owns chelsea last night bombed a hospital and killed 3 people there including a 6 year old child.....he had nothing to do with the war either, as did none of the thousands of other civillians murdered  by this evil dictator who is supported by RA

The US have been killing and bombing civilians (and 6 yo children) for years. And have completely destroyed many countries. Let's see some sanctions against them. Or against Israel. 

Russia has many million people to go to reach the levels of murder that USA has been responsible for. 

There is so much more here than a bunch of people doing the right thing. I don't think Boris Johnson or any right wing politician would do the right thing if it hit them in the face.

Just now, nonotnowjim said:

1) No - They have not seized his assets at this time, so they cannot sell the club unilaterally at this time.

2,3,4 moot - as the club cannot at this time be sold without Romans permission.

You're right, my comments were answers in the event that Roman actually gives in to the government's demands. 

1 minute ago, Bluesince66 said:

Trust you axman2526 lol.

Has if having the FA and VAR against wasn't enough we've even got our own Government against us now!!!....🥺

So with the UK government taking the asset, are we now technically Boris Johnson's Blue Army? Gawd help us.

1 minute ago, forbzy said:

So with the UK government taking the asset, are we now technically Boris Johnson's Blue Army? Gawd help us.

They have not taken the asset. They have frozen Romans assets, but not taken anything.

Just now, nonotnowjim said:

They have not taken the asset. They have frozen Romans assets, but not taken anything.

So how does this work? They freeze assets but continue to pay him (and other oligarchs) for the oil and gas, can these oligarchs still receive the money? If they can, why not for the sale of a football club?

Social Media around Chelsea is a cesspool at the moment.

"HELP! SAVE THE BRIDGE!" "Back to a tiny club again!" "RIP 1905-2022" "DEAD CLUB" "Have fun fighting for relegation in L2!" "DELETE CLUB" etc.

The UK government is getting love from the rival fans right now. They really want us down under. Feck ANY of those idiots. Don't wish them that the same thing happens to them, but they are making it hard to.

I love this club to bits and to me it's like a close family member is in hospital at the moment.

Edited March 10, 20224 yr by Mana

At the mo seems a lot of moving parts about this.

It appears to me the government don't want to seize the club, that would be a lot of work for them and already they have the club, the foundation, and the supporters trust knocking on their doors.

My guess is they will be in negotiations with Roman to ensure the club can fulfill its fixtures and is sold as quickly as possible. As Roman loves the club I expect he will do his best to look after us and a sale will still come with government approval.

Much as they want to take action they don't want thousands of Chelsea fans causing chaos. And if they threaten the clubs existence and protests we put against the super league will seem like a small gathering in comparison.

37 minutes ago, Deino said:

1) Yes

2) Doesn't matter, Roman can't sue the government for actions to stop a war from happening. It will not look good in court

3) New ownership stays anyway. Probably Roman will befriend them in some capacity to be allowed to watch Chelsea games in the future but that's just assumptions on my part. Billionaires tend to know each other

4) I'm not too sure but from the fatcats I've worked with, they tend to have teams weigh pros and cons before buying and CFC's pros massively outweigh the cons

Unless they have irreputable proof he's directly funding the war, that sounds like a lot of nonsense to me. And how's freezing his UK assets supposed to stop a war from happening? How does it work? "Hey, Rom, it's Vlad. I'm running out of ammo here, sell Lukaku for twenty mil if you have to but I need a couple of new tanks, asap. P.S. Tell Marina she looks hot in that new top"?

I bet you Putin doesn't give a flying f**k about Roman's problems or any other Russian oligarchs'  financial troubles in the West. In fact I'm sure he's enjoying it, these actions only back his point that you can't trust western powers with anything, including your money, when it suits them they'll turn on you and wipe their asses with the same laws they preach everyone should follow.

Edited March 10, 20224 yr by abramovich