ROMAN’S £1BN REVENGE
Chelsea owner scraps plan to develop club’s stadium after row over UK visa
ROMAN Abramovich yesterday pulled the plug on a £1billion redevelopment of Chelsea FC’s stadium in apparent retaliation for delays to his UK visa.
The Russian owner was understood to have put the project on hold due to his frustration at being caught up in Whitehall’s war on wealthy oligarchs in the wake of the Salisbury nerve agent attack.
Ministers have faced pressure to crack down on cronies of Russian president Vladimir Putin who hold assets in London, with officials carrying out a retrospective review of all holders of investor visas – granted to those willing to invest £2million in the UK – which includes 700 Russians.
Mr Abramovich’s last 40-month visa is believed to have expired in April.
Sources close to the billionaire, who has lived in London since buying Chelsea FC in 2003, indicated he had no desire to pump more of his fortune into a city that had made him ‘unwelcome’. Some fear that the tycoon, who is said to be worth £8.6billion, will now pull out of Chelsea FC entirely.
Reports in Israel – where Mr Abramovich has now been granted citizenship – suggested he had withdrawn his UK visa application because he was tired of waiting for it.
Mr Abramovich, Britain’s 13th-richest man, is arguably the country’s most high-profile Russian investor. His decision to halt the project at Stamford Bridge in west London is likely to trigger speculation that other Russian oligarchs may withdraw investments if they find visa applications delayed in a similar fashion.
Chelsea had been hoping to redevelop their current 41,000-capacity ground by 2021. The plan, which was granted planning permission by Hammersmith and Fulham Council last year, was for a new 60,000-seat stadium on the site of their current ground.
The redevelopment was believed to include affordable housing worth £3.75million, and £12million in community facilities and services for the local area.
However, in a terse website announcement yesterday, Chelsea FC said: ‘Chelsea Football Club announces that it has put its new stadium project on hold. No further pre-construction design and planning work will occur. The club does not have a time frame set for reconsideration of its decision. The decision was made due to the current unfavourable investment climate.’
A Chelsea FC spokesman refused to elaborate, but sources close to Mr Abramovich suggested he did not want to invest in London in light of the treatment he had received at the hands of the Home Office.
He is said to have been particularly unhappy that he was unable to watch his team win the FA Cup against Manchester United last month, as he waited for a new visa. Chelsea fans fear the club could be left in disarray were he to sell it.
The apparent delay in Mr Abramovich’s visa renewal follows a Government crackdown on Russian oligarchs linked to Mr Putin in the wake of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March. Mr Abramovich is known to be close to the Russian President and is said to have once given him a £25million yacht.
Last month it emerged Mr Abramovich was effectively being treated as a new applicant for a UK visa, which meant he faced a Home Office probe into his vast wealth.
After it was revealed that his UK visa had been delayed, Mr Abramovich decided to apply for – and swiftly received – Israeli citizenship, qualifying through being Jewish. He collected his Israeli ID card at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport earlier this week. This means he no longer needs a visa to visit the UK, but he cannot work here without an investor visa.
A source close to Mr Abramovich told the Jerusalem Post: ‘He understands and respects that the UK are reviewing their processes and has therefore chosen to withdraw until a new process is in place. He has spent many years in the UK and is a legitimate businessman. Nothing has changed.’
While there was no suggestion that Mr Abramovich obtained his fortune illegally, the tightening of rules for wealthy foreign investors since he first obtained a British visa in 2003 left him potentially facing exhaustive questions from the Home Office about his sprawling business interests.
Mr Abramovich is estimated to have spent more than £1.2billion on transfers and £2.5billion in wages since buying Chelsea FC 15 years ago in a move which shook-up English football.
Adil Pastakia – who was listed in the official minutes in 2016 as a member of the Chelsea stadium project team – posted tweets yesterday claiming Mr Abramovich was indeed hitting back at the UK government. He said: ‘It’s political tit for tat for denying Roman his visa to live and work in the UK – it’s as simple as that – and as a consequence our club has been caught in the cross fire.’
When asked last night if Mr Abramovich had withdrawn his visa application, a Home Office spokesman said: ‘We would never comment on an individual case.’