Money talks? Not after this. Football has turned a blind eye to owners for too many years... game has failed its own fit and proper test. Clean up your act now!
I’VE been saying this for years: football has always had the ability to ignore the stench of money… just so long as they see the colour of it.
How many times have questions been raised about owners of clubs, only for concerns to be waved away, and agreements waved through, because of the money involved?
It’s not just Chelsea. Money from dubious states, it’s all washed through football in recent years.
And washing is the right word, because we all know about sportswashing. People are prepared to hold their noses and ignore the smell, so long as it suits their club.
I’m not blaming Chelsea for what has happened to their club.
The players, the manager, the staff, all the people who could potentially lose their jobs, the fans, they can’t take responsibility for something Vladimir Putin has done. And this whole obscene war is down to one man’s madness.
Yet we knew for years the connection between Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and Putin (right).
By extension, we knew where the money might have been coming from.
It was laughable when it was suggested he had no connection to the Russian president, but was then flying out to apparently help with the peace negotiations taking place between Russia and Ukraine.
There’s little doubt of a connection, based on the
Government’s report on the links and trail of money. That is what the Government say, why he has been sanctioned, and why they say he can’t profit from the sale of Chelsea. It’s an inconvenient truth, and Chelsea’s supporters have long known it, but it’s suited them to ignore it. Now would be a good time to pick heads out of the sand… if only to take a long hard look around at what is happening in Ukraine. It breaks your heart to turn on the TV and see the devastation.
Surely that should be a starting point for some serious questions on the ownership of football clubs.
We can’t have money trails that the Government say lead back to people like Putin any more, we can’t
have sportswashing which channels Government money into football and changes the economics of the game completely. Surely we can’t?
Of course, the big question is, how to change it? I know it won’t be easy, you can’t turn around and say fans own clubs from now on.
But sanctioning Abramovich and ensuring the sale of Chelsea is regulated by the Government offers a chance to change the narrative on club ownership.
The least they can do is ensure any sale is genuine, and doesn’t merely provide a way to get around the sanctions. Then the Premier League can do a GENUINE fit and proper person check on the buyer.
For me, I’d want to see it go further, with the opportunity to impose a serious element of fan ownership on the deal.
Why not move football towards a German model, where fans get the chance to be part of the club, and have a meaningful say in the direction of travel?
I don’t know where the sanctions leave Chelsea. The cynical part of me would say I’m not so sure it will make any material difference.
Abramovich was given time by the Government – and we know the seeming links between Russian money and our Government – to get his financial ducks in a row before these sanctions.
He is apparently still being allowed to sell Chelsea, so you could argue a sale will go through, and the manager, players and the club won’t be affected, in essence.
But the longer it goes on, the more players will wonder what it means for their contracts. If we get to the summer and it’s not sorted, then that could spell real trouble.
The conversations between players and agents will be going on already. Where does this leave me? Will I be able to go, will I be able to rip up the contract? No one will know.
I was in a slightly similar situation at Leeds when the finances collapsed and they wanted players to take wage cuts.
For me, it was simple. It was out of my control and there was no use
wasting energy on something beyond my influence. I just sat it out. I’ve always had the mental capacity to do that, but others don’t. Players will be rightly fearful. Some, who haven’t been playing and are feeling hard done by, will be looking to get out fast. That leads to the potential for collapse, on and off the field.
It’s a mess, but let’s not lose sight of who is behind this. It is one man who is responsible for these atrocities – and
Chelsea cannot ignore the links the Government say are between him and their current owner.