Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich attends the UEFA Women's Champions League final soccer match against FC Barcelona in Gothenburg, Sweden on May 16, 2021. Abramovich on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 confirmed he is trying to offload Chelsea — the Premier League club he turned into an elite trophy-winning machine with his lavish investment. The speed of Abramovich's looming exit from Chelsea is striking as he was trying to instigate a plan over the weekend to relinquish some control to keep the club. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
Abramovich has been facing pressure to sell since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last month. Over the weekend, he relinquished control of the club to the "stewardship and care" of trustees of Chelsea's charitable foundation.
The sale would be the latest impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the sports world, with international governing bodies banning Russian national and club teams from international competitions.
Abramovich said the sale will not be "fast-tracked" and that the net proceeds of the sale will be donated to a foundation for the "benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine," including "providing critical funds towards the urgent and immediate needs of victims, as well as supporting the long-term work of recovery."
He said he would not be asking for any loans to be repaid. According to a January report by The Athletic, Chelsea owes Abramovich more than £1.5 billion ($2.01 billion) in loans made to the club's parent company.
"This has never been about business nor money for me, but about pure passion for the game and club," Abramovich said in the statement.
The sale could fetch billions of dollars. Chelsea was valued at $3.2 billion by Forbes last year, tied for the 25th most valuable sports team in the world with the Boston Celtics of the NBA and the Denver Broncos of the NFL.
Abramovich has not been personally sanctioned by the U.K., but there have been calls for the country to add him to the sanctions list due to his allegedly close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
British Member of Parliament Chris Bryant told Parliament Tuesday that Abramovich appears to be unloading assets in the U.K. because he is "terrified of being sanctioned." Bryant also urged the government to move faster in imposing sanctions on those with connections to Russia.
Abramovich purchased the West London-based club in 2003 and turned it into one of the top soccer teams in the world. Under his ownership, Chelsea has won five EPL titles and won the Union of European Football Associations Champions League — considered the top club competition in the world — twice, most recently last year.
"Please know that this has been an incredibly difficult decision to make, and it pains me to part with the club in this manner," Abramovich said in his statement Wednesday. "However, I do believe this is in the best interest of the club. I hope that I will be able to visit Stamford Bridge one last time to say goodbye to all of you in person."
Officially, the club has said the "situation in Ukraine is horrific and devastating" and that they are all "praying for peace."
A multibillionaire, Abramovich owns the private equity and venture capital firm Millhouse Capital LLC and also has a large ownership stake in London-based Evraz Group SA, a publicly-traded steelmaker and mining company with worldwide operations.
In December, Abramovich reached a settlement with HarperCollins in a libel suit over journalist Catherine Belton's best-selling book, "Putin's People." The publisher agreed to say that there was no evidence he purchased Chelsea on Putin's orders to gain influence in the U.K., as the book had alleged.
--Additional reporting by Andrew Strickler and Silvia Martelli. Editing by Vaqas Asghar.
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