London: Bill
Gates, a former associate of Microsoft Corporation, founded Paul Allen, has
decided to expand his investment in sports and buy London Chelsea FC from the
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
The fact is that
Paul Allen is interested in buying a Chelsea football club in London, according
to today's issue of The Sun's tabloid.
It is noted
that Paul Allen has already talked to the football agent Pinchas Zakhavi, a
close friend of Roman Abramovich, on this subject.
In 2015,
Allen was 51st in the Forbes magazine with a capital of $ 17.5 billion. In
addition to information technology and assets in the field of aerospace
systems, the 65-year-old American businessman invests a lot in commercial
sports.
In
particular, Paul Allen is the owner of FC Seattle Sounders, who represents the
American League of MLS, the club of the National Basketball Association (NBA)
Portland, the Seattle Sichops team, acting in American football.
Earlier, it was
reported that the current owner of Chelsea Roman Abramovich is considering
options for selling the club for the amount of 3 billion pounds sterling. It
was noted that he had already rejected one bid for a football club for 2.3
billion pounds.
For the first
time information about Abramovich's desire to part with his sports brainchild appeared
in the press in August this year. The Times wrote that the main motive for the
sale of the club from Abramovich is asset restructuring amid possible sanctions
from the US, as well as problems with the British visa that arose with him,
after which the businessman received an Israeli passport that allows him to
stay in the UK for up to 90 days within six months.
Roman Abramovich bought the Chelsea Football Club for 140 million pounds (in dollar terms, about a quarter of a billion) in 2003. Prior to that, the club did not win in national championships, nor in European competitions. From 2003 to 2018, the club won five times the championship of England, the Champions League and the Europa League.
In the days of the Swiss newspaper, Swissinf reported, that Roman Abramovich refused to issue a residence permit in Switzerland due to the fact that his stay in the country is undesirable. This is the conclusion of the Federal Office of Criminal Police in Switzerland.