Chelsea Football Club may face going out of business if the government were to impose sanctions against its owner, Roman Abramovich, finance experts have said.---article in today's Times of London
This was the headline over an article which inter alia quoted "financial experts" hyping" the consequences if government attempted to "seize" Abromovich's assets :
“If the government do seize the assets, in which case they seize Chelsea, that is probably for him a bit of a final straw,” Wilson said.
“He would likely try to walk away from the club . . which would create a problem for Chelsea because it would have to be sold or go out of business.
Who would buy Chelsea with a £2 billion loan?”
Lets hope that the expert was misquoted by the times journalist who, he is a journalist after all, did not understand what the "expert" said.
The UK is a large , sophisticated economy with many financial experts and no doubt the Times could always find one to say whatever was convenient and another to say the opposite. Even in this simple sentence there are two non sequiturs to wit:
- If the government has legally "seized" the assets [presumably sequestered under UK law] then Abramovich would have no say in the disposition of said asset, i.e. Chelsea F.C.
- It would now be owned by the government .
- By the same token under the presumably legal grounds which the government took the asset ,the malefactor--Abramovich--would not have standing to call the loan.
- There would be no need for the Chelsea FC to go out of business.
- The proceeds from gate receipts and its share of TV rights would be multiples of that needed to pay wages and keep the club running.
- The government could if it wished --as the new owners--appoint a new board to run the club
- While it created an auction to sell it off to the next narcissistic billionaire who wanted such a bauble.
If BOJO got his act together and actually did something about Londonigrad and the Oligarch donors to his Tory party then Roman Abramovich[RA] would have a lot more to worry about than a football club worth perhaps $1-1 1/2 billion.
- He owns a third of London listed steel & mining giant EVRAZ.
- As of yesterday its market cap was just under £5 Billion .
- This compares to £7 1/2 billion the day before Putin seized Ukraine's DONBAS region.
- If BOJO sanctions RA then he loses his stake and the company is delisted.
- He also loses his extensive property empire and will not be eligible for a bus pass when reaches 62.
Lets hope--for him -that his $400 million yacht is not in a British Marina.
By the way where did Putin moor his yacht last week.
If BOJO sanctions RA it likely pushes the USA and the EU to do the same. Then Chelsea FC will look like chump change.
Yesterday the Guardian reported
" Roman Abramovich handed $450m dividend from Russian mining group his London-listed Russian steel and mining business Evraz has given investors a $1.55bn (£1.2bn) dividend, worth approximately $450m to its shareholder Roman Abramovich"
Anyway Cyclops was sufficiently irritated by the Times concern for poor old Chelsea and RA that he sent the following to their web site comments page under his commoner nomme de lettres.
I copy from their site:
Chelsea may go bust ‘if Abramovich were to face any sanctions’
irving kuczynski
2 HOURS AGO
I must say the reader comments on this article are much better than the idiot speculation from so called "financial experts" quoted in the article
1. Taking at least this type of very modest action against Putins cronies is 20 years overdue
2. The actions proposed merely takes Chelsea out of Roman's ownership -under sequestration by the state.
3. The club can continue to play and operate
4. The state can then sell the club to some other half witted billionaire or Gulf potentate--just like Newcastle--
5. Certainly the Premiership has never stopped crooks, murderers and tyrants from owning English clubs---all are always found "Fit and Proper".
6. No need to repay Romans debt as he will have been found to be an "inappropriate owner/beneficiary" .
7. The proceeds would go to UK treasury.
8. The law actually allows the UK government to do this as the asset is owned illegally if was acquired using "unknown sources or illicitly obtained " money.
9. Same goes for his other UK assets .
10.UK can also bar his entry or arrest him when he comes to London
11.Can also arrest his family
If any reader here thinks this cannot be done under UK law they can check with the oligarchs legal counsel.
- If Roman or the others think the UK is acting ultra vires they can get their lickspittle Barristers to take the Government to court to find out or
- Perhaps they could just call the Tory Party treasurer and ask for their money back
then ran out of "TIMES" comment space
No sooner had Cyclops clicked "send" to the Times than the following appeared on their web page
WAR IN UKRAINE
Roman Abramovich gives up control of Chelsea
Whatever the Times "financial experts thought--Cyclops thinks Roman blinked.
Post Hoc propter Hoc 
Nah could not have seen my post to the times that quickly
If BOJO is serious---silly question I know--then the UK needs to impose sanctions that cost the UK ;not just EU countries..
If BOJO is serious---silly question I know--then the UK needs to impose sanctions that cost the UK ;not just EU countries.. - Nor just brief against the Germans/Italians .
- Cutting gas imports will hurt their economies not the UK's.
- They will face a real sacrifice in supporting Ukraine.
- Cyclops is a little hazy in understanding how BOJO s UK grandstanding costs the UK economy much at all.
HRHKC will take Boris seriously [ED;no you won't] when he sees:
- Yevgeny Lebedev removed from House of Lords .
- Bojo donates to charity the over £2.5million the Tories have received from Russian oligarchs and their stooges. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/23/oligarchs-funding-tories
- Nullifies UK citizenships bought by said oligarchs ,their wives and children.
- Bans ownership of UK newspapers by his said Russian chums [ED: what about Rupert Murdoch?
- [Cyclops: Be my guest--is he a Russki too?
- Ex Tory cabinet ministers resign from the boards of Major Russian companies.
Think Cyclops makes this stuff up ? 
Just three Russki donors have given £1.7 million --after buying their British citizenship,w/o needing to give up Russian
- The biggest single donor to the Tories is financier Lubov Chernukhin, who has donated £700,000.
- A British national since 2011, she is married to Vladimir Chernukhin,
- Former deputy finance minister under Putin.
- Apparently he was allowed to leave Russia in 2004 with assets worth about $500m (£366m) and
- Retain Russian business connections
- The industrialist Alexander Temerko, also a UK national,.
- Has donated £357,000 since Johnson took office.
- He is a minority shareholder and co-owner of a company called Aquind.
- Its majority investor is the Russian oil tycoon Viktor Fedotov.
- Along with his partner, he has given the party more than £750,000 since 2017.
"The donor, the Russian deals and the Conservative money machine ' -FT http:// The donor, the Russian deals and the Conservative money machine- Mohamed Amersi has given £258,000 in last two years.
- Amersi advised on Russian telecom deal
- Swiss tribunal subsequently found it to be controlled by an associate of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
- Even the Swiss
thought the deal was dodgy https://www.ft.com/content/5dab0a3e-687a-446f-8e55-58c999d4321f
Amersi is "not a team player;rum sort of fellow"
"Give me back my £200,000, major donor tells Tories" --Guardian feb 5th 2022
"Controversial telecoms mogul Mohamed Amersi takes on Conservative party over exclusion from elite gatherings and auction prizes never received"
- He thought it was "pay to play"
- just like Lubov Chernukhin tennis games with BOJO
- But they did not let him play
- Arriviste --I guess
There are many more.....
AND ON AND ON......... All in Public sources on the web
A third of ministers who attend cabinet have taken donations from three ex-Russian businesspeople daily mirror
EXCLUSIVE:
Quarter of Boris Johnson's Cabinet took Russia-linked cash
Irving Kuczynski 
