▲ February 12, 2022, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the 2021 Club World Cup final, Chelsea beat Palmeiras 2-1, Abramovic celebrated
No one would deny that Abu was the greatest boss in Chelsea's history. He made the Blues brilliant and ushered in the era of "golden dollar football"; he was loved by Chelsea players and respected by fans around the world.
Looking back over the past two decades, both Abu's arrival and departure have been linked to the political situation. In November 2021, Israeli President Herzog said at Stamford Bridge, chelsea home, that the Russians owning Chelsea was a shining example of sport and teams being a force for good and capable of creating a more inclusive future.
This article was first published in Southern People Weekly
Text / Southern People Weekly reporter Yang Nan
Photo / Visual China
For the past week, the famous Russian oligarch Abramovich has made daily headlines in global sports news, and this situation will continue at least until the end of March.
Abu first announced the relinquishment of control of Premier League side Chelsea, announcing three days later that he would sell Chelsea," "in the best interests of the club." In those days, Abu's private jet was tracked flying from France to Moscow, and his spokesman claimed he had been helping to broker a peaceful solution to the Russo-Ukrainian war. Another rumor is that Abu was negotiating the first round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Belarus. Ukrainian director Rodnyyansky said Ukraine was trying to find someone in Russia willing to promote a peaceful settlement, and Abu was one of the candidates they were looking forward to.
In the sale statement, Abu did not ask Chelsea to repay any loans (worth more than £1.5 billion) and said the net proceeds from the sale would be used to help the victims of the war in Ukraine.
In fact, Abu has not been involved in Chelsea's day-to-day operations for three and a half years. In 2018, Abu's UK visa expired and has not been renewed since then, allegedly due to an inability to explain the source of the huge wealth. Russia and Britain have spoken publicly on the matter, with the former saying that their citizens are often treated "unfairly and unfriendlyly" when applying for investment in Britain, while the latter saying: "Our differences with Russia have nothing to do with the Russian people, only with the Russian government." ”
After the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Europe announced a series of sanctions against Russia. On 3 March, the British government announced new sanctions against Russian oligarchs and their families, including freezing assets in Britain. The first round of sanctions included the billionaire Usamanov, who is an important sponsor of two Premier League teams Everton and Arsenal, and As soon as the sanctions order came out, Everton faced a funding gap of 300 million pounds.
Also on 3 March, Abu announced the sale of Chelsea. More than two dozen inquirers included Los Angeles Dodgers shareholder Todd Boehly, Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, hedge fund giant Ken Griffin and Hansjoerg Wys, an 86-year-old Swiss billionaire known for his charitable giving.
All quotes must be given by March 15. Abu rejected the £2.5 billion offer, hoping Chelsea would sell for £3 billion and asking the other side to guarantee that there were enough resources to maintain Chelsea's elite position in European football.
Since acquiring Chelsea in 2003, Abu has invested more than £2 billion in Chelsea in the first decade: buying players and coaches at high prices. He brought Chelsea to achievements that have never been seen in a hundred years: two Champions League trophies, five Premier League titles, and Chelsea's promotion to the British football giants. It was he who made the Premier League see the benefits of money and opened the "golden dollar era" of football.
On 30 April 2005, Abramovich (right) joined hands with players Lampard (centre) and John Terry to celebrate Chelsea's first Premier League title
Chelsea manager Tuchel and the players, who knew in the away dressing room in Luton Town, were on the news that the squad would be sold, telling the players: "We should allow ourselves to focus on what we love most, which is football. ”
Chelsea players walk out of the dressing room to start the fifth round of the 2022 FA Cup against Luton. Luton fans chanted: "You're going to be sold tomorrow." Chelsea fans chanted in unison: "Roman Abramovich, we want you to stay. ”
Less than two minutes into the opening, Chelsea lost the goal. In the 27th minute, Chelsea equalized, and in the 41st minute, conceded another goal. But in the second half, Chelsea adjusted their line-up, scoring two goals in 22 minutes to reverse the score to 3:2 until the end of the game.
"I hope I can visit Stamford Bridge one last time and say goodbye to all of you personally." It has been an honour of my life to be a part of Chelsea and I am proud of all that we have achieved together. Chelsea Football Club and its supporters will always be in my heart. Abu wrote at the end of the sale statement.
Those who know something about Russian history understand the complex meaning of the word "Russian oligarchy."
In 1991, privatization began in the Russian Federation, and businessmen who seized state resources, such as oil, quickly amassed enormous wealth. In order to win re-election, then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin continued to decentralize financial controls on oligarchs in order to gain their joint support.
In 2000, Putin took office, and since then, a series of actions to purge the oligarchs have begun, the seven major oligarchs of the Yeltsin era have been cleaned up one by one, and the regime has returned to the Kremlin.
Abu, who was less than 35 years old at the time, had already made a fortune by selling oil, and later successively controlled Rusal and Russian Civil Aviation, becoming Russia's new oligarch in the late 1990s. He soon sensed a shift in the times, starting in late 1999 by selling his assets and dismembering his industrial empire. In 2000, he was elected chief executive of the Chukotka Autonomous Region in Russia's Far Eastern province, where he invested $200 million to improve the lives of the local people and to distance himself from the old oligarchs in the form of giving back to the society. By 2002, he had sold most of his properties and gradually withdrew from the Russian market.
▲ On July 19, 2016, in Sochi, Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin (center) visited the "Sirius" education center and met with business people, the left one is Abramovich
The famous football agent Zahavi met Abu in 1998, and a few years later, he gave Abu a piece of advice: invest in football.
Abu first looked at Spanish and Italian football clubs, but La Liga is a membership system, it is difficult to have a holding owner, and Serie A clubs are widely involved with local governments. On 24 April 2003, Abu watched a game in the UK that changed the pattern of European football, where Manchester United won 4-3 to Real Madrid but fell behind by one goal in two legs to reach the Champions League Semifinals, Ronaldo scored a hat-trick to conquer home fans, and David Beckham scored his last Champions League goal at Manchester United on the bench. Two months later, Xiaobei joined Real Madrid and formed an ultra-luxurious galactic battleship with Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Raul and others. After a taste of football at Old Trafford, Abu left in the car of United player Leo Ferdinand.
Then, unexpectedly, Abu decided to buy Chelsea.
Chelsea in London have a lot of potential: although they have never won the Premier League or the Champions League, they won the European Super Cup five years ago. What's more, Chelsea in 2003 was almost a financial graveyard: chelsea had accumulated more than £80 million in debt due to former boss Bates' passion for developing hotels and restaurants (Bates bought Chelsea for £1 in 1982), and by 23 July of that year, if Chelsea could not return the £23 million card debt, all renewals and transfer negotiations would be frozen. Chelsea player Lampard at the time recalled: "The boss informed the manager that after each game, players and opponents were prohibited from exchanging shirts because the club needed to save on the cost of shirts. ”
In June 2003, Abu bought Chelsea for £150 million and paid off all his debts. Since then, the russian oligarch's most well-known identity has been born: the owner of the Premier League Club Chelsea. He also obtained a business visa to live in the UK for a long time and bought a large area of land and business in London.
Abu's move has awakened Russia's new rich, who have begun to invest in Russian football, spend money to bring in foreign aid, and improve the competitiveness of the Russian Premier League. Russia's largest "Luke" oil company became a sponsor of the Moscow Spartacus team, moscow gas company threw a $60 million contract to the local "Saturn" team, and the chaebol Fedolichev announced the acquisition of the Moscow Dynamo team, promising to invest $150 million for the club.
Abu has never stated his motivation to buy Chelsea, saying only that he likes the unpredictability of football and wants to get involved in that excitement, excitement, to be a part of the football game. The outside world thinks he will only serve as a low-key background for Chelsea, and it is enough to let his money say everything. In fact, Chelsea's major decisions are made by him: for example, in 12 years, he has changed 9 managers for Chelsea, reduced the cost of trial and error, and ensured that Chelsea will not have two consecutive seasons of poor results.
▲ On May 19, 2012, in Munich, Germany, Chelsea won the Champions League for the first time in history by defeating Bayern Munich 4-3 through penalties. Abramovich hugged player Terry
After Abu, the richest people from all over the world visited the Premier League one after another: Manchester United became a money-making tool for the Razer family, and Manchester City was created as a channel for the Abu Dhabi royal family to increase the influence of the UAE state. Unlike other billionaires, Abu is the only team owner who frequently comes to the scene to watch the game. The expiry of his visa changed his habits, and after 2018 he only appeared in Chelsea matches where the venue was neutral.
No one will deny that Abu is the greatest boss in Chelsea's history. Another comment that surrounds him is: Money doesn't buy class.
But money can buy championships. After joining Chelsea, Abu bought players at any cost. He first poached Manchester United CEO Ken Young as Chelsea's new butler, then wrote a check for the team's first transfer window for hundreds of millions of pounds. In his imagination, Ronaldinho, Zidane, Carlos should all come to Chelsea, and although this imagination did not materialize, Chelsea bought 10 players in the 2003/04 season, including Joe Cole, Duff, Veron and others. In the summer of 2003, there was a saying in European football that anyone chelsea fancy would have no drama, not even the qualifications to talk about it.
In the 2003–04 season, Chelsea finished in the final four of the Champions League and second in the league. After that, Abu began looking for a coach, and he tried to pry the corner of Manchester United again, but was ruthlessly rejected by Sir Alex Ferguson, who has been coaching at Manchester United since 1986. But soon, Abu signed Ferguson's "nemesis" Mourinho at a sky-high price.
▲ On July 5, 2007, In London, England, Abramovich (center) attended the launching ceremony of the team's new training base with Chelsea CEO Ken Young (left) and chairman Bruce Booker
Abu's money is used not only to buy players and coaches, but also to pay liquidated damages for constantly changing coaches. From the 2007-08 season to the 2011-12 season, Abu paid a total of five liquidated damages in four years, amounting to £65 million.
In 2009, UEFA introduced the Fiscal Fair Play Act, which restricts Chelsea and a growing number of local clubs that spend money indiscriminately. The bill stipulates that if a team accumulates losses of more than 45 million euros for more than two years, it will be punished with a deduction of champions league share, restriction of reinforcements, reduction of the number of Champions League entries and so on.
As for Chelsea, in the second financial year of Abu's arrival, he had already lost 140 million pounds: Abu spent far more money than Chelsea could have made. In response to the Fiscal Fair Play Act, Abu converted the club's liabilities into his own share assets on three occasions in seven years, totalling £876 million. On paper, Chelsea became a zero-debt team.
But the Russian has changed not only Chelsea, he has also changed European football.
He has made frequent coach changes and squad changes to keep the team running efficiently. The huge sum of money allowed Chelsea to win the Premier League title in two years and unlock the Champions League in less than a decade. After winning the Champions League in 2012 with a group of veterans, Chelsea iterated on the entire squad in less than two years. In early 2019, Chelsea received a penalty of banning reinforcements at two transfer windows for illegally reaching out to young players. But in the summer window of 2020, Chelsea invested more than 200 million euros to complete the overall reinforcement, and then the manager was replaced by Lampard to Tuchel, winning the Champions League for the second time in history.
▲ On May 29, 2021, Bordeaux, Portugal, Chelsea beat Manchester City 1-0 in the 2020-2021 Champions League final, and Abramovic (second from left) and his two sons watched live and celebrated with Chelsea captain Azpilicueta (second from right).
In 20 years, Chelsea has won 21 major competitions and joined the European giants. With Lub, Abu broke the 8-year-old Premier League domination between Manchester United and Arsenal.
Since then, the major leagues in Europe are no longer the home of local chaebols, and global capital has gradually infiltrated into them. In addition to Tottenham, the six giants of the Premier League have all completed the change of ownership of capital, and the owners have varied from North America to the Middle East; the Milan brothers in Serie A have completed multiple rounds of transfers, and even once appeared in the Chinese-funded derby; Paris Saint-Germain of Ligue 1 has formed a monopoly in the league in the capital injection of the Qatari consortium backed by the royal family; and even la Liga, which has been adhering to the membership system for many years, also has a team (Malaga) that has entered the Champions League in history after qataris invested 100 million euros.
Gold dollar football was popular and once wanted to subvert the history of the European League. In April 2021, 12 of Europe's top football clubs, including Real Madrid, Juventus, Arsenal and Chelsea, announced the formation of the UEFA Premier League plan – an oligopoly plan with a profit expected to reach 10 billion euros.
The plan was opposed by politicians and institutions in many countries, and the French Football Federation and the French Professional Football League issued a statement saying that the existing system unites the European leagues and that the European Premier League will upset this balance.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the British government would hesitate to use legislation to stop the plan. And the statement of the British Culture Secretary Dowden may best represent the protest of the European football tradition against the golden dollar football:
"Football clubs in the UK are not just commercial presences, they define communities large and small across the country."
Abu's most controversial decision at Chelsea was to insist on signing Shevchenko.
On 1 June 2006, Abu signed Shevchenko, who was at the end of his career, for a record £35 million, against then-head coach Jose Mourinho.
Shevchenko said Abu had thrown an olive branch at him for three years. And Mourinho knows that Shevchenko is the player Abu most wants to bring to Chelsea.
At that time, there was a passage circulating: "Mourinho's starting list only has ten places for him to fill out, because there is a name called Shevchenko that has been printed on it in advance." ”
Born in 1976, Shevchenko is ukraine's finest player, the 2004 World Footballer of the Year. During his seven years at Serie A ac Milan, he scored 173 goals, the second-highest number of goals in Milan's history. He made 111 appearances for the Ukrainian national team, scored 48 goals, and is still the first scorer of the Ukrainian national team and the top scorer of the European qualifiers of the World Cup before Cristiano Ronaldo.
On September 15, 2007, in London, England, Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho (right) shook hands with player Shevchenko during the Premier League chelsea and Blackburn matches
In 1988, Shevchenko officially joined the Dynamo Kiev youth team. That year, the Soviet national football team won the Second Place in the European Championship, which was the last glory. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet national football team won the Olympic Games and the European Championships. In the memories of The Brazilian king Pele, "There is a team in Europe, and I personally used to call it the 'Big Red Team' because they used to play in red jerseys, and in my opinion, they were the hardest opponents in Brazil. ”
After the 1990s, the results of the Russian national team fell again and again, and the change in the territory was an important reason: Ukraine and Belarus, two countries with a thriving football career, have become independent. Among the 23-man team that finished runners-up at the European Championship in 1988 were 13 Ukrainian players, as well as a Ukrainian head coach, Olibanovsky.
Shevchenko's performance at Chelsea was quite tragic. In his first season, he scored just four goals in 30 Premier League games and was attacked by Drogba for his selfish style – the combination of Shevchenko and Drogba had high hopes; by the 2008 Champions League final, the new manager Grant did not even give Shevchenko a chance to play. Three seasons later, Shevchenko left Chelsea and returned to his home side Dynamo Kiev. After hanging up his boots in 2012, Shevchenko was the head coach of the Ukrainian national team for five years, before taking charge of Genoa in Serie A.
But now, for Shevchenko, football no longer exists.
"Football doesn't exist for me anymore. I don't think about it. I don't look at anything, any sport, anything. "I called my parents and friends to find out what's happening in Ukraine. For me, that's my field, and that's my focus right now. ”
The mother and sister were in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and refused Shevchenko's persuasion to leave Kiev. Shevchenko repeatedly said to the outside world: "We only want peace, war is not the answer." "We need to stop this war, we need to find a way to stop it."
A spokesman for Abu confirmed that Abu had been working towards a peaceful resolution of the Russo-Ukrainian war, but that "his influence was limited." "The stakes are high and we want the outside world to understand." His spokesman said.
In November 2021, Abu accompanied Israeli President Herzog to watch Chelsea's game. Speaking at Stamford Bridge, Herzog said the Russians owning Chelsea was a shining example of sport and teams being a force for good and could create a more inclusive future.