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Earlier quoted context omitted.
"net proceeds" being the key phrase. This doesn't sound like he's donating all the money from the sale. It sounds like if he sells it for more than he originally paid for it, that extra will be donated.
He bought it in 2003 for 140 million pounds. The team is valued between 3 and 4 billion now.
For those of us that don't follow Premier League Football, what's the context here?
He is one of the few owners who attended most games and refused every approach to sell, despite the UK govt.'s best efforts to obstruct. He took the team from a bunch of nobodies to the most successful Premier League team over the last 20 years. He also invested a lot into future sustenance, leading to arguably the best academy in English football.
He has always had shady roots, but no more than do most oligarchs. Especially ones from non-Western nations.
He was well liked within the club, and disliked outside as all nouveau-riche clubs are. Had good relationships with players and came across as a fan, first as foremost. Also did a lot to remedy some of the anti-semitic history within the club.
He was a major player in facilitating Putin's rise to power and reaped benefits from it. It is often said, that Chelsea was his way of owning a major western investment that Putin could not snatch away at a moment's notice.
Due to hi ties with Putin, Roman has been under intense pressure to sell the club for the last 5 years. He was banned from visiting the club and his ability to inject funding was also hampered significantly. The war was the last nail in the coffin, as the sanctions are forcing him into a position where selling is the only option.
Separating himself from the club saves face for the club and keeps it alive, at the expense of his ability to have any influence on it. Roman may be a less-than-honorable man out in the world, but to Chelsea fans, he was a true blue. It is a difficult dichotomy that Chelsea fans have lived with, but now is the hardest it has ever been.
As far as a russian oil-tycoon(mafia?) oligarchs go, he has acted in good faith during the war and pushed vocally pushed for peace and resolution in the war. That's probably the most he can do without being shot. So, as a Chelsea fan, I'll take it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He even went as far as calling it a war. That's considered borderline treason in Russia by now.
15 years in prison if the new law passes, right?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He even went as far as calling it a war. That's considered borderline treason in Russia by now.
Maybe, and I'm guessing, he is like many Russians and hoping for an overhaul of their Putin-and-cronies government.
>Moreover, I have instructed my team to set up a charitable foundation where all net proceeds from the sale will be donated. The foundation will be for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine. That's quite the statement coming from one of Russia's biggest oligarch.
"net proceeds" being the key phrase. This doesn't sound like he's donating all the money from the sale. It sounds like if he sells it for more than he originally paid for it, that extra will be donated.
(I'd be surprised if arms dealers base their pricing off your net worth)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The money could all be payed to families of dead Russian soldiers and still be considered going to "victims of the war in Ukraine" Plus, I don't think Abramovich really cares of any investigative journalist finds this never came true
Considered by whom?
For billionaires, philanthropy is simply PR
The guy is giving away £3 billion+ to charity and writing off a £1.5 billion loan, and yet the whole thread is looking for holes in the short statement. Nice gesture I say as he didn’t start the war.
Context for people unfamiliar with football/soccer: Roman Abramovich is a Russian oligarch who grew rich in the 90s by buying state owned companies at rigged auctions. He was close to the previous President Yeltsin and allegedly recommended that Yeltsin appoint Putin as his successor. His relations with Putin have remained cordial with Putin unlike some other oligarchs like Mikhail Khordokovsky, who crossed Putin and…