The war that ended the Abramovich empire: goodbye to two decades of gold and luxury at Chelsea

These are not times of sports or economic crisis in the wealthy neighborhood of London. Chelsea, current Champions League championraised his second Orejona last May and in December announced a growth in your business of 7% (above 500 million euros). However, with the month of March, the end of an era has come, the most glorious in the history of the club, pushed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Roman Abramovich, possibly the best-known Russian tycoon in the world, will sell Chelsea leaving behind 19 years in which he revolutionized the business and sports world.

ran July 2003 when a young oligarch Abramovich at the time (he was only 36 years old) decided to buy one of the largest entities in the london ostracism. The most soccer-loving city on the European scene had seen how its ‘posh’ neighborhood only had in its showcase, among major titles, one league (in 1955), three FA Cups (1970, 1997 and 2000) and two league cups ( 1965 and 1998).

for close to €165 millionin addition to eliminating the debt that the club carried, Chelsea then came under the domain of the Governor of Chukotka (a region in the far east of Russia that touches Alaska) and owner of the Sibneft oil company. Román Abramóvich thus made the leap to football, with the clear objective of placing the London team at the top of the world scene.

21 titles to be among the best in the world

2,340.88 million then invested in signing players, according to data from Transfermarkt (with sales of almost 1,300 million), Chelsea is today the fourth club with the highest UEFA coefficient -the one that measures the results of the last five years-, the only English that has raised four European titles in the last ten years -two Champions and two Europa League- and, together with Manchester United and Manchester City, the one that has raised the most Premier League in the last 17 years.

In other words, it can currently be considered the best club in London, its journey in recent years is infinitely better than that of Arsenal, Aston Villa or Tottenham, as well as one of the main clubs on the English and European scene thanks to bring to the windows all possible titles (2 Champions, 5 Premiers, 5 FA Cup, 3 League Cups, 2 Europa League, 2 England Super Cups, 1 European Super Cup and 1 Club World Cup -his last title and with which he has closed the cycle-).

Chelsea’s high investments in signings were one of the reasons for UEFA to create the Financial Fair Play rules

21 titles from the management of an Abramóvich whom many accuse, for better or for worse, of change the world of football forever with Florentino Pérezbecause until the arrival of the modern sheikhs they were the only ones who fully dared to take the beautiful game to its purest business side (it is considered that UEFA created, in part, the Financial Fair Play rules to protect investments such as those of Real Madrid and Chelsea).

The Champions of 2012 gave the reason to Abramóvich in his investments

Disbursements in signings like the Belgian Romeu Lukaku -brought in 2011 and 2021 for 128 million euros, in total-, the American Christian Pulisic -64 million- or the Spanish Kepa Arrizabalaga -80-, Alvaro Morata -66- and Fernando Torres -58.5-. His five most expensive signings, to which must be added the fact that he took Stamford Bridge to Petr Cech y Didier Drogba (in 2004 both) whom he joined with the youth squad John Terry and a Frank Lampard who had arrived at the club two years before Abramovich. The four great bastions on which Chelsea was built and that in 2012 finally touched the Russian’s great dream of being king of Europe.

That Champions won at Bayern Munich, precisely in Munich, marked the high point in the tycoon’s career and the definitive symptom that his investment had been worth it (in 2008 he already touched glory but fell in the final against Cristiano Ronald’s Manchester United). Until then and since then, in the harshest times, the criticism of its management and disbursement They always slipped trying to bring down an empire that only war has brought down.

War and sanctions were cast over Putin’s shadow at Chelsea

For his close relationship with Putinwhich Abramovich himself has always denied but to which he is linked by obvious political ties from his time as governor (he has even participated in the peace negotiations with Ukraine), in addition, British parliamentarians have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of helping Abramovich’s acquisition in 2003 for extend Russia’s influence in the West. All until reaching the point where the cruelest phase of the war with Ukraine has led to the final announcement of the sale of the club after almost 20 years.

A campaign for which buyers are already being sought, after slipping the businessman who I would listen to offers that moved between 2,000 and 3,000 million euros, and for which the consulting firm KPMG has valued Chelsea at a value of 1,900 million euros. Since the end of February, the management of the ‘blues’ is no longer the responsibility of the Russian and it is the club’s Foundation that has taken the reins, trying to prevent European sanctions from damaging the entity’s image.

A Chelsea that says goodbye forever to the person who changed its history to place it among the greatest in the world of football, while he built a business empire that has led him to be, on occasions, the eleventh richest person in the world. Gone are 19 years of gold (titles) and luxuries (signings) that have shaken the day to day life of the wealthy neighborhood of London… ready to welcome its new tenant.