Light at the end of the tunnel
Barely 24 hours after the sale of Chelsea was supposedly on the verge of collapse, we now have reports of the sale actually being on the verge of approval. Magic! Barring any further briefings (or griefings, as it were) from the UK Government, it looks like we should be able to move forward shortly. (Feel free to reschedule your tweets, Trivago.)
With Premier League approval seen as a formality — and “imminent” as per reports this morning — we now have a clear route for the government to approve the sale and issue all the necessary licenses. As reported by The Times, a “legal resolution” has been found for the £1.5b debt owed by Chelsea’s parent company, Fordstam to Roman Abramovich, which was held by Jersey-based Camberley Investments.
Camberley are outside the remit of the UK Government (though the Government of Jersey also sanctioned Abramovich), but their trustees have now been indemnified and released from any future tax implications and protected from any legal action, enabling the debt to written off and the money from Chelsea’s sale thus put into an escrow and eventually used to set up Mike Penrose’s Foundation.
The upshot of all that financial mumbo jumbo is that the “sale structure” (including the £50m in total bonuses paid to the management team handling the £4250m sale) has been accepted by the powers that be (on either side), and it should be all green lights from here on out, right? (Right?!)
