I don’t care he’s not the owner anymore. Now let’s talk about Man City.
Chelsea FC face fresh questions over how its former owner Roman Abramovich funded the club’s success, after leaked files revealed a string of secret payments that may have breached strict football rules, including those on “financial fair play”.
Experts said the transactions, uncovered through a joint investigation by the Guardian and international partners, could lead to the Premier League imposing punishments on Chelsea, such as a deduction of points.
The files reveal a series of payments worth tens of millions of pounds over a decade, routed through offshore vehicles belonging to Abramovich. The transactions in question appear to have been for Chelsea’s benefit, raising questions about whether they were declared in accounts submitted to football’s governing bodies.
You do have to question this entire piece of journalism considering it’s not telling us anything new or groundbreaking. We already know as fact that Clearlake have reported secret payments that were made under previous ownership to the Premier League months ago when going through the club’s finances. I don’t suppose Bruce Buck or Marina are around to face questioning?
I swear it’s like a new publication gets to write this exact story every couple of weeks (coincidentally the last one came during the last international break aka slow news cycle).
Next they’re going to tell us we paid Andreas Christensen’s dad as a scout or that we paid Bertrand Traore’s mum - both of which we’ve already served two transfer bans for btw.
They've found more payments haven't they. That's what this is saying. It's more of the same stuff. Not looming good for chelsea
You do have to question this entire piece of journalism considering it’s not telling us anything new or groundbreaking.
Did you read the article? It literally states multiple instances of rule breaches that have not been self reported.
We already know as fact that Clearlake have reported secret payments that were made under previous ownership to the Premier League months ago when going through the club’s finances.
I don't think much of it has been leaked to the press though - this is the media doing what the should be doing.
The question is, what kind of punishments should Chelsea face? If it's a small points deduction years later, when it ultimately doesn't matter, then it's not much of a deterrent to anyone else.
I’m not convinced you clicked the link and read the article
Do you not think that maybe that is why Clearlake reported what they did. To muddy the water like this. They report the least damning thing they can find and lump every other accusation in as what they’ve already reported.
Take away those titles!
I’m not sure if anything substantial will wind up happening mostly because Clearlake have been upfront with the Premier League and self reported potential infractions.
BUT if this leads to significant punishment down the line, it will taint Abramovich’s legacy as owner. He will no longer be known as strictly the serial winner who took us to a household name. It’s not my place to adjudicate nor am I naive enough to think his image was totally clean before all of this. It’s just something to ponder. Potential punishment on top of the two transfer bans we were handed? It skews the measurements.
Don't think self reporting matters does it? They can still penalise the club, dock points and put a transfer ban in place.
It certainly helps, or at least should. Thought City's tactic of denying, bribing and throwing lawyers at it seems to be working better.
Hey guys, I just murdered someone. I'm being upfront though, so I guess that's fine right?
Not really the same but yeah that would potentially soften the sentencing
More like I murdered one guy and admitted it. That means you can ignore the other 15 bodies right.
Should be a stripping of titles as it was previous owners and perhaps a financial restriction to punish the gains down the line from the cheating.
Chelsea’s success will always have an asterix next to it - if they were owned by Arabs, of course.
Both clubs cheated, and have caused the PL to become worse as a result
The extent of Chelsea's cheating and cities cheating are barely even comparable. It's like one slapped a grandma and the other committed a genocide.
We all knew their success was bullshit, let's hope this is the nail in the coffin that confirms it.
They can financially dope all they wish, but the players still have to perform, the manager still has to do a job. Money doesn’t buy competence or success.
It clearly does. Believing that the wealthiest clubs aren't consistently they most successful is denying reality.
You could say the same for chemical doping...
Time to post another pathetic megathread on your sub.
Arsenal fans had Usmanov owning their club for a long time and begged him to own it fully at times too so it’s always funny when they cry about Abramovich.
City and Chelsea duking it out for the one direct promotion spot in the national league next season.
We're acting like these things are new now? The entire system is rotten to the core, not just the club funding but the entire organisations running the sport
People always like to point out that City ruined football, but the FA and the other authorities just letting Roman financially dope his way through success was rhe bigger alarm.
None of it matters now. They've reaped the benefits and any points deduction doesnt make a difference.
Chelsea walked financial doping so City could run with it.
I’m sure I read somewhere that relative to transfer fees at the time Chelsea were bankrolled more than City.
Which is why they should be forced to start over. Relegate them to the bottom of the pyramid and remove the titles won.
That is the only fitting punishment for them and city. Just complete death penalty. But they’ll never do, there is zero incentive. The fact is as long as the premier league continues to grow in popularity, people keep going to games and keep watching on tv that is consent for all of this. The message everyone is sending to the premier league is that we love cheating, we are all in favour of the league being uncompetitive and bought by city every single year. Because we keep watching it.
I agree, people in charge are the ones who allowed this to happen in the first place. now it’s a big mess with clubs being in financial doping all over Europe.
The FA and UEFA: Oh No! Anyway...
Is this any different than City taking 'revenue' from shell companies owned by their club's owner? If nothing will be done to City for money laundering and stuff like that I doubt anything comes of this.
And despite all of this, the Premier League will keep opening its legs to any shitty human with a lot of money.
Do you know what money laundering is?
Don't worry guys, I'm sure the FA, the Premier League, UEFA and FIFA, bastions of sporting integrity, will come together to tackle the corruption of the likes of Chelsea and City any day now.
Throw city and Chelsea in a league with Newcastle and PSG. That can be the true super league.
4 team league I love it
No one would miss them cunts
You ok, hun?
Add Salzburg, Girona, Leipzig, Leverkusen, Wolfsburg... there are more offenders who will gladly join this project and bring as many fans and morals as the ones above.
Wait you’re telling me that Chelsea’s meteoric rise to winning trophies, immediately after being acquired by a Russian oligarch who was friends with Putin, is in some way connected to ill gotten gains?
It's a shocker, I know!
Fire and blood
What's new? Every couple of months "new" information comes out about some financial transaction that some club made. Football is a cesspool of secret money transfers and underhanded dealings.
Call me when something concrete comes out or when a club is actually punished.
Well that's a bit vague, isn't it. Doesnt provided any convincing information just that the previous club owner may have done something sketchy with the club's profits. Some sources revealed Chelsea's profits directly go to Putin's pockets. How do this breach financial fair play? We ain't doping the transfer market with state fund money. It's just roman's own business what he does with the profits how does that lead to point deduction after this whole fiasco