Chelsea fans won’t be duped by slick PR moves as club’s future ownership draws to a conclusion

BY PAUL LAGAN
paul@slpmedia.co.uk

With most of the men away on international duty – and the women left frustrated at the very late postponement of their WSL match at home to Spurs on Wednesday – the club and staff return to their gossip of who will be taking over the club and when.

Bidding stopped on Friday and several have since tried to woo the fanbase with hopes and promises.

The Chelsea fans are intensely loyal to the concept of Chelsea Football Club. They are intensely hostile to the prospect of anything that will alter that.

The attempt by Roman Abramovich and the football board to buy the pitch owners shares a decade ago, which would have given the club sole ownership of the pitch and the freedom to relocate away from Stamford Bridge if they wished, created civil war between the owner and fans – the latter won.

The recent attempt to be part of a breakaway European Super League reignited the sense of betrayal among the fans to the club, and with organised demonstrations set to wreak havoc at matches, the club pulled the plug on the idea – the fans won again.

Whoever takes over the club cannot rely on some slick PR agency coming in to charm the fans – the supporters are too wise for that. So what happens next?

The Raine Group – an American merchant bank which also advises high-profile businesses on their development – is charged with creating a shortlist of four serious bidders.

That process is almost complete and they, along with representatives of the club, will put a proposal to the Government as to who they feel is their preferred bidder.

The Government is expected to announce that decision within days, once due diligence is done on the bidder.

After that the sale of the club should be relatively straightforward and by the end of May, there will be a new owner of Chelsea and Abramovich’s 19-year reign will cease.

But until that time, sanctions imposed by the government have created a cash shortfall which, for many other companies, would have led to administration.

Chelsea was given exceptional status and special licences have been issued allowing them to function on a day-to-day basis – paying wages and arranging match travel.

The government has allowed £30millon from Chelsea’s parent company Fordstam, effectively Abramovich, to allow the club to function ahead of its sale.

Lobbying of the government has also forced them to alter the licence allowing the club to sell tickets to all women’s matches, men’s away matches, the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley against Crystal Palace and Champions League fixtures at Stamford Bridge.

None of the cash raised will go to the club, but to a Premier League account. It will eventually feed down to the victims of the Ukraine war.

The men’s next match is at Stamford Bridge against Brentford on April 2.

The women could have topped the WSL on Wednesday night, had they beaten Spurs at Kingsmeadow.

But the game was called off a couple of hours before kick-off, leaving many fans furious at the late postponement.

One supporter posted on social media that he had travelled 140 miles on a wasted trip, while Chelsea goalkeeper Zecira Musovic was suspicious of the whole thing.

The club said that they agreed, along with the FA, to the postponement due to Spurs having Covid in their camp.

Musovic went on to Twitter to vent her ire. She said: “Doesn’t make sense to me how a game can be postponed due to a number of Covid-19 that close to kick-off. Something clearly must have went wrong here. Enough players at noon, but not at 4pm, hmmmm…”

Emma Hayes’ side travel to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester City in the WSL on Sunday.

The Blues could top the league again but only if leaders Arsenal lose at home on Saturday to Spurs.