Chelsea have effectively been up for sale since the Home Office delayed Roman Abramovich’s visa renewal after the Salisbury poisonings in 2018, but his extraordinary public statement has dramatically altered the terms of any potential deal.
By writing off £1.5billion in loans to the club, the Russian has made it far more attractive to potential investors, while the carefully-worded offer to give all ‘net proceeds’ to victims of the war in Ukraine may succeed in detoxifying the sale — an issue which had been deterring potential buyers concerned about doing business with a man facing government sanctions.