Roman Abramovich set to break silence on £2.5 billion sale of Chelsea
An extremely rare interview with the Russian.
Roman Abramovich is finally set to break his silence on the £2.5 billion sale of Chelsea to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital three years ago.
The former Chelsea owner remains sanctioned by the Government due to his alleged links to controversial Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Abramovich was a popular figure across his 19-year spell in west London, with the club enjoying 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 first time about his sale of the club in a book called ‘Sanctioned’ by Nick Purewal, which will be released this summer.
Abramovich has not publicly addressed the sale of Chelsea to date and it’s extremely rare for the billionaire to take part in interviews of any kind.
Chelsea are yet to win any trophies since BlueCo replaced Abramovich and some of the club’s fans have expressed anger towards their new owners.
In March 2024, a section 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 a number of established stars with young wonderkids on massive contracts, spending over £1 billion on new players.
They sacked head coach Thomas Tuchel in 2022, a decision 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 came in.
Maresca is hoping to guide Chelsea back into the Premier League top four this term after they finished 12th and sixth in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
Chelsea currently sit sixth again in the current 2024-25 campaign, three points off the top four 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 in the semi-finals next month.
Last month, meanwhile, The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust called for the Premier League to investigate Boehly due to his connection with ticket resale site Vivid Seats.
The company is called an ‘unauthorised ticket website’ by the Premier League, with fans warned to ‘exercise extreme caution’ if they use the website.
The US organisation sells Premier League tickets, often for much greater than face value.
