Roman Abramovich: Matthew Syed’s 2013 viral interview on Chelsea owner | OneFootball

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned by the UK government.

His assets have been frozen which includes the west London club.

He’s now unable to sell the Stamford Bridge club as he had planned to. Instead, he will have to apply for a special licence from the government to do so. Then, the government will take control of the sale and the Russian will receive no money from it.

It seems that’s the only way out for both Abramovich and Chelsea.

It’s been almost 20 years since Abramovich purchased the west London club and he’s brought incredible success with his heavy investment.

While many Chelsea fans adore the businessman for what’s he has done, there are a few people that have always questioned his presence in British football.

One of the most outspoken of them is Matthew Syed, columnist for The Times.

And his comments about Abramovich back in 2013 – 10 years after he had arrived in the Premier League – have been going viral this week.

Appearing on Sky Sports News, Syed is very strong in his opinion that Abramovich should never have been allowed to buy a football club in the first place.

We must stress that this is the opinion of Syed and all claims he makes are his own view, not ours.

Check out the video below:

VIDEO: Matthew Syed’s comments on Roman Abramovich from 2013

Exactly what Syed said on Roman Abramovich

Syed says: “Well he’s definitely spent a lot of money there’s no disputing that. But one has to look at how he’s amassed his wealth and his QC, Jonathan Sumption admitted in open court in his case against Boris Berezovsky that he had secured his money in a rigged privatisation. Essentially, the Oligarchs did a deal with Boris Yeltsin, who was running for re-election. ‘We will back your campaign, we will give you free advertising if you sell us the mineral wealth of the Russian people at a knockdown price.’

“Sumption admitted this, it’s not in dispute and that’s stolen money – if it can use the word. Certainly, fraudulently got. It’s what is bankrolling Chelsea which has paid for the academy, inflated first-team football salaries and you can’t look at this in a purely footballing context. You have to look at the wider moral context and, in that sense, it’s been a deeply corrosive influence on British football.”

Syed continues: “Tony [Cascarino] talked about the fact that he has continued to invest and reinvest. He was never in Chelsea to make a profit. He wasn’t investing in order to make a return which is the way most people operate commercial assets. He bought Chelsea for protection. He knew there was a risk that Putin would come after him like he has with other Oligarchs for his role in this very dubious business practice under Yeltsin. And he knew one of the best ways of protecting himself from being got at by the Russian authorities was to associate himself with a highly visible British asset – and he chose Chelsea Football Club. There’s no real emotional background to that. That was a straight-forward hard-headed decision from a very ruthless and manipulative businessman.

“So to talk about it in terms of ‘Oh he’s great because he’s invested in British football’ look at the reason he did and look at the money he’s using.”