Chelsea fans singing the name of Roman Abramovich in the week the club was hit with a record fine for illegal payments made under the Russian’s stewardship is desperate enough. Others leaving the stadium early felt like a repudiation of all that the Blues are.
A three-goal Champions League defeat at home to Paris Saint-Germain, taking the aggregate score to a coruscating 8-2, signalled how aimless the club has become, a vessel for wealthy prospectors rather than a serious football club competing for the game’s premier prizes.
You might argue that this is the logical extension of the transactional experience it always was under Abramovich. That the fans bought into that association as a genuine bond between benefactor and team reflects how low the ethical bar is for supporters who care only about the trophy count.
This is all supporters, of course. There is not a club in the world who would turn down the kind of cash injection pumped by Abramovich, no matter how allegedly dirty the source or the purpose of spending it.
The Blues were hours from going bust when Abramovich stepped in to relieve previous owner Ken Bates of his burden. Poor old Bates, so close yet so far from reaping the rewards of the Premier League boom. He had little alternative but to submit to the Russian offer.
Liam Rosenior’s side lost 8-2 on aggregate to the defending champions (Photo: Getty)Chelsea, like Manchester City and Newcastle United, were propelled overnight into the vanguard, shaping a new footballing era based on unaccountable ownership.
The Blues paid a piffling price for their transgressions this week, and one against which those clubs treated more harshly justifiably protest. We await the outcome of the hearing into 130 charges of financial irregularity against Manchester City, all denied, with even greater interest now.
Hemmed in by regulatory reaction to Chelsea’s and City’s spending, Newcastle, poor lambs, were denied the opportunity to splash the kind of wealth that would dwarf even their partner kingdoms. Nevertheless the influx of Saudi Arabia funds delivered a first trophy for 50 years and powered the Toon into the Champions League.
The difference at Chelsea is in the ownership model. The Saudis did not buy Newcastle to make money, but to spend it on burnishing their reputation. The technical term is sportswashing, normalising a theocratic state with a medieval approach to human rights via ownership of Big Sport.
Chelsea, on the other hand, are all about investing to turn a profit. The Blues are one of a number of properties in the sporting portfolio of Todd Boehly and his BlueCo buddies, who see the Premier League and Champions League as profit accelerators.
Enzo Fernandez admits he does not know where his future lies after the defeat (Photo: Getty)The majority owner, Clearlake Capital, raises the funds to invest largely from private equity firms on the promise of huge dividends in return. This is more straightforward in the financial sector where the variables don’t go missing in Paris to kill their Champions League hopes, nor cough up home defeats to Newcastle in the Premier League that jeopardise their participation in Europe’s big money-spinner next term.
In the two decades since Abramovich swept in, Chelsea fans have seen their world transformed. Yes they were a top-six club for seven seasons prior to their Russian revolution, but for six of the seven seasons before that they did not finish in the top half. And in the two decades before that they were a yo-yo team spending eight seasons in the second tier.
At least in that period of turmoil when Chelsea were undone by the financial overreach involved in building a new stand, the fans were spiritually aligned with the club. Indeed a school friend of mine would send his 12p-a-week pocket money to help with the fundraising effort to save the club.
Imagine that in this disposable world where mercenary owners hire mercenary players for profit knowing that either party will leave when it suits. Is that Enzo Fernandez making eyes at Real Madrid, per chance, despite having six years left on his contract?
Contract? Ha, like that is anything other than a device of mutual convenience. Meanwhile, those picking up the emotional tab are the fans, interchangeable commodities as far as the owners are concerned but the only part of the whole that really gives a damn, even if their moral compass has been warped by excess.
Hence then, the article about chelsea fans sing for roman abramovich because they ve lost hope was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Chelsea fans sing for Roman Abramovich because they’ve lost hope )
Also on site :