Swiss tycoon Wyss considering offer to buy soccer club Chelsea : Paper

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Swiss business tycoon Hansjoerg Wyss is considering buying football club Chelsea from Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, Wyss told Swiss newspaper Blick.

“Abramovich is currently trying to sell all his villas in England. He also wants to get rid of Chelsea quickly now. I, along with three other people, received an offer on Tuesday to buy Chelsea from Abramovich,” Blick quoted Wyss as saying in an interview published on Wednesday.

Wyss said he would have to wait four or five days to see how things play out.

“Abramovich is asking for far too much at the moment. You know: Chelsea owes him 2 billion pounds. But Chelsea has no money. Meaning: those who buy Chelsea should compensate Abramovich,” he said.

Wyss said the exact sales price was still unclear.

“I can well imagine joining Chelsea with partners. But first I have to check the general conditions carefully. What I can already say, though, is that I certainly won’t do something like that on my own. If I buy Chelsea, it will be with a consortium of six or seven investors.”

Chelsea under trustee control

Abramovich handed over control of Chelsea to trustees of its charitable foundation on Saturday as Premier League players showed their support for war-torn Ukraine.

Abramovich’s move came just days after Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, which has drawn international condemnation.

The 55-year-old, who has ploughed £1.5 billion into Chelsea since arriving at Stamford Bridge in 2003, said in a statement on the club’s website that he had always viewed his role as a “custodian of the club”.

Chelsea coach loses his cool

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel lost his temper at a news conference ahead of their FA Cup match at Luton Town and snapped at journalists after being repeatedly asked about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The world of sports continued to isolate Russia on Tuesday after it launched its invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea last week following a declaration of war by President Vladimir Putin.

“How often do I need to say it? It’s horrible, of course, it’s horrible, there cannot be any other opinion about it,” a visibly angry Tuchel told a news conference ahead of Chelsea’s fifth-round cup tie.

“Everybody in Europe has some noise in (their) head that nobody likes. Maybe it’s the same for you, but you still try to do your job as good as possible and it’s the same for us.”

The atmosphere heated up even more towards the end of the conference, when the German interrupted a journalist trying to ask another question about “the horrors of war”.

“Listen, you have to stop. I’m not a politician. You have to stop, honestly,” Tuchel said.

“I can only repeat (myself) and I even feel bad to repeat it because I never experienced war… I’m very privileged, I sit here in peace and I do the best I can but you have to stop asking me these questions. I have no answers for you.”

Asked if he was worried about Chelsea’s future after Russian owner Abramovich gave stewardship of the club to trustees of Chelsea’s foundation last week, Tuchel said his players and management team were trying to focus on their jobs.

“We try to be calm, and we are calm in the centre of a storm or of some noise around us that we cannot control and we are not responsible for it,” he said.

“In the end, it’s best to focus on what we love and what we do, and this is sports. And I think we have the right to focus on sports, the players have the right to focus (on it).

“This is what we can do for the fans — to distract them, to entertain them and do what we do with a maximum effort and a maximum commitment.”

6 months ago