Chelsea FC face new questions over how Roman Abramovich funded success
www.theguardian.com
Leaked files reveal secret payments that may have breached football’s strict ‘financial fair play’ rules
  • QuaintHeadspace@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    2 年前

    NOW they ask questions… not in 2004 but 2023 when the twat is gone… fucking media man asking the right questions at the wrong time just a casual 20 years too late…

  • surgereaper@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    2 年前

    We’re acting like these things are new now? The entire system is rotten to the core, not just the club funding but the entire organisations running the sport

  • WombRaider_3@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    2 年前

    They can borrow our trophy cabinet if the league ever does anything about all those plastic trophies they won. It’s spotless just like theirs was before Daddy Russia.

    • Rorviver@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      The extent of Chelsea’s cheating and cities cheating are barely even comparable. It’s like one slapped a grandma and the other committed a genocide.

    • DamoDuff11@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      Arsenal fans had Usmanov owning their club for a long time and begged him to own it fully at times too so it’s always funny when they cry about Abramovich.

      • 3500fp@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        And the former shareholders of the club refused to sell any more to him, and passed away before cashing out on a sale to avoid him taking over instead of Kroenke because of his character. Not the same situation at all

    • NotClayMerritt@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      They can financially dope all they wish, but the players still have to perform, the manager still has to do a job. Money doesn’t buy competence or success.

    • NotClayMerritt@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      I’m not sure if anything substantial will wind up happening mostly because Clearlake have been upfront with the Premier League and self reported potential infractions.

      BUT if this leads to significant punishment down the line, it will taint Abramovich’s legacy as owner. He will no longer be known as strictly the serial winner who took us to a household name. It’s not my place to adjudicate nor am I naive enough to think his image was totally clean before all of this. It’s just something to ponder. Potential punishment on top of the two transfer bans we were handed? It skews the measurements.

      • 3500fp@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        Everyone already knew he was a criminal and operated the club in a shady manner. Only deluded Chelsea fans think it was done legally in any way. Not a diss but this literally doesn’t change anything, and I don’t think most Chelsea fans would care anyway, they’ve got their titles

      • Rare-Ad-2777@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        Don’t think self reporting matters does it? They can still penalise the club, dock points and put a transfer ban in place.

        • Rorviver@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          2 年前

          It certainly helps, or at least should. Thought City’s tactic of denying, bribing and throwing lawyers at it seems to be working better.

      • Livinglifeform@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        Should be a stripping of titles as it was previous owners and perhaps a financial restriction to punish the gains down the line from the cheating.

      • grchelp2018@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        BUT if this leads to significant punishment down the line, it will taint Abramovich’s legacy as owner.

        Only if it leads to titles being stripped or something. A few 10s of millions in total going to some agents here and then isn’t going to do much.

        What I am curious about it is why they did so in the first place. The amounts are too little to go through all this trouble. I’m more inclined to think that his finances were such a complicated web that every now and then, money went out from the “wrong” shell companies or they simply missed it when reporting it later because it was so complicated.

      • Alsmk2@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        Hey guys, I just murdered someone. I’m being upfront though, so I guess that’s fine right?

  • UglyWanKanobi@alien.topOPBEnglish
    1·
    2 年前

    Chelsea FC face fresh questions over how its former owner Roman Abramovich funded the club’s success, after leaked files revealed a string of secret payments that may have breached strict football rules, including those on “financial fair play”.

    Experts said the transactions, uncovered through a joint investigation by the Guardian and international partners, could lead to the Premier League imposing punishments on Chelsea, such as a deduction of points.

    The files reveal a series of payments worth tens of millions of pounds over a decade, routed through offshore vehicles belonging to Abramovich. The transactions in question appear to have been for Chelsea’s benefit, raising questions about whether they were declared in accounts submitted to football’s governing bodies.

    • Darpn@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      Sad for the new owners since nobody from the Roman era is still there but I guess they didn’t do the necessary due diligence.

    • grchelp2018@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      Every time I read about Roman’s financial transactions, there are new shell companies from the BVI. More shell companies than people have throwaway email/reddit accounts. He must have a dedicated guy on payroll just for naming them.

      • AppleSlacks@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        I’ve never understood the success of shell companies, just go out on the beach and pick them up.

        • GillyBilmour@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          2 年前

          Don’t get me started on hedge funds. The guy I pay to do mine once only costs £200 for the day.

    • NotClayMerritt@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      You do have to question this entire piece of journalism considering it’s not telling us anything new or groundbreaking. We already know as fact that Clearlake have reported secret payments that were made under previous ownership to the Premier League months ago when going through the club’s finances. I don’t suppose Bruce Buck or Marina are around to face questioning?

      I swear it’s like a new publication gets to write this exact story every couple of weeks (coincidentally the last one came during the last international break aka slow news cycle).

      Next they’re going to tell us we paid Andreas Christensen’s dad as a scout or that we paid Bertrand Traore’s mum - both of which we’ve already served two transfer bans for btw.

      • Lyrical_Forklift@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        We already know as fact that Clearlake have reported secret payments that were made under previous ownership to the Premier League months ago when going through the club’s finances.

        I don’t think much of it has been leaked to the press though - this is the media doing what the should be doing.

        The question is, what kind of punishments should Chelsea face? If it’s a small points deduction years later, when it ultimately doesn’t matter, then it’s not much of a deterrent to anyone else.

        • not-always-online@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          2 年前

          The only fair punishment that would also act as a deterrent, is to strip them of all their titles during this period.

          • niceville@alien.topBEnglish
            1·
            2 年前

            Lol, that’s not a deterrent at all as that has no tangible impact on the team.

            The games still happened, the players got their bonuses and new contracts, the fans got their parades and merch. Who cares if a wikipedia entry gets changed?

            • Lyrical_Forklift@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              2 年前

              You can never take back those moments, but it’s definitely a more severe punishment than a points deduction on a season where it’s likely not going to matter that much.

              • niceville@alien.topBEnglish
                1·
                2 年前

                A points deduction would keep Chelsea out of Europe for another year and hurt them financially. What’s an asterisk going to do?

            • Oliver-Mc10@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              2 年前

              Bet you won’t have this opinion when city fans sing “champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that” at the Etihad

      • empiresk@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        You do have to question this entire piece of journalism considering it’s not telling us anything new or groundbreaking.

        Did you read the article? It literally states multiple instances of rule breaches that have not been self reported.

      • depressingmirror2@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        Do you not think that maybe that is why Clearlake reported what they did. To muddy the water like this. They report the least damning thing they can find and lump every other accusation in as what they’ve already reported.

      • Rare-Ad-2777@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        They’ve found more payments haven’t they. That’s what this is saying. It’s more of the same stuff. Not looming good for chelsea

  • SOERERY@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    2 年前

    City and Chelsea duking it out for the one direct promotion spot in the national league next season.

    • evenout@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      2 年前

      I always like to think what would happen if a huge club dropped to the National League. It’s worse than relegation for players because the Championship is not that bad, some players jet off but some will stay to help fight back. If City or Chelsea, hypothetically were to drop down what would they do? Would Foden or James stay at their respective clubs to stat pad in the National League? Would the entire squad have a clear out and they’d use some PL2/U21 kids in the league? It’s fascinating to think about.

      • kitfan34@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        2 年前

        Both ours and city’s academy is very strong as well so I’d imagine other PL and Championship clubs would sweep up a lot of our young players as well. End up fielding the under 8s

  • Rascha-Rascha@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    2 年前

    Don’t worry guys, I’m sure the FA, the Premier League, UEFA and FIFA, bastions of sporting integrity, will come together to tackle the corruption of the likes of Chelsea and City any day now.