Gary
Neville has reacted to Roman Abramovich's announcement that he intends to
sell Chelsea after an almost 20-year ownership of the club.
Abramovich made the announcement on Wednesday evening amid rising fears of
UK sanctions, and said the net proceeds from the sale would be used to found
a charitable foundation "for the benefit of all victims of the war in
Ukraine".
The billionaire had initially intended to hand "stewardship and care" of
Chelsea to the club foundation's trustees, as outlined in a previous
statement on Saturday, in a move aimed to protect the Stamford Bridge club
following Russia's invasion of its neighbour.
But he has now publicly admitted he is looking to sell up.
Abramovich bought Chelsea in a £140m deal in 2003 and is owed £1.5billion in
loans, debt he says he will not ask to be repaid.
Following the announcement, Sky Sports pundit Neville gave his views on the
situation, and on the issues of so-called sportswashing and club ownership
in the Premier League...
'Chelsea have been successful under
Abramovich'
"It's more of a reactive measure than a planned measure because I don't
think he would have put the statement out on Saturday night, handing the
club to the trustees if he knew he was going to put the club up for sale a
few days later.
"We've seen in the news over the last four or five days that wealthy
Russians are moving their assets all over the world to more safe havens
where they're not going to have their assets seized, and Abramovich is no
different.
"He's been an important owner in Premier League history over the last 20
years. I do believe he has enhanced the competitiveness of the Premier
League.
"It was a model at the beginning that I found bizarre, coming from a stable
club at the time in Manchester United - sacking managers quite regularly who
had seen success. But over the last 20 years, he has been a very successful
owner of a football club that has created a distinctive model in the way
they approach things, particularly with their academy players.
"They're a football club who have been very successful and become admired
under his ownership, but eventually those alleged links to Vladimir Putin
and the war on Ukraine have brought it to an end.
"I think things have been closing in on him for a few years now and it has
come to a head in the last week.
"I'm not thinking that all of a sudden, Abramovich is a philanthropist and
he's an angel walking away from English football - I don't think anybody
should. We're all aware how Russian wealth was spread around all those years
ago after the break up of the Soviet Union… There were alleged links to
Putin, no one really knows how close.
"But there were reports the other day that Abramovich was helping with peace
talks so he must be very close if they were true."
Neville on sportswashing
"There is a lot of talk about sportswashing, around Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi,
Russia coming into sport in this country. I've been quite positive in my
view that we should accept this money into our country.
"At this moment in time, that theory is being tested enormously, but I would
rather use sport for change and create better environments and circumstances
for populations in countries who don't have it as free as ours.
"What I would say with sportswashing and Russia is it's not helped by FIFA's
hesitancy in the early days [following the invasion of Ukraine] when Poland
said they wouldn't play them in the World Cup play-off. FIFA is embedded
with Russia and it took them time to fudge it as they normally do, saying
they could play with the country on their shirts and the national anthem not
being played.
"When you see Russia winning [the right to host] big tournaments and trying
to legitimise their regime through sport, it does challenge my opinion that
I would rather it was inclusive and bringing in countries with what you
would say are poor human rights records or other major issues. I would
rather sport rose above it and accepted those countries to try and affect
change and impact change.
"For those that are adamant that we shouldn't be allowing this money into
the Premier League and other parts of our society, they are having a very
strong week because even my long-held opinion is being tested enormously.
"Chelsea fans have a lot of affinity with Abramovich and rightly so. But the
reality of it is Chelsea will be okay and irrespective of whether you like
the idea of Russian money coming into English football or not, Abramovich
has been a very good owner for Chelsea. There are worse owners who are
English."
'Premier League needs more transparency on
ownership'
"We've got an issue in English football with ownership in general… football
has been on the brink for a few years now and that's why I've been calling
for an independent regulator.
"I'm not against Saudi Arabian money coming into Newcastle, I know Newcastle
fans have welcomed that to transform their football club because they had a
very poor English owner. However, what should be a right of all football
fans in this country is what was the criteria that the Saudi Arabians had to
get through to be accepted into English football. Where's the transparency?
"The Premier League is a closed shop around these matters and it's not good
enough. It's coming hurtling at them like you would not believe because they
cannot separate sport and these societal and political issues anymore.
"They are going to have to stand up and accept that while they don't believe
they're a public body, they are ultimately going to be viewed like that and
they have to act and behave in that manner.
"We've seen other societal issues bleed into football continuously over the
last 18 months to two or three years and that is absolutely right. We cannot
separate ourselves in sport or football anymore and that is something that
means football is going to have to be held to higher stands.
"That means there needs to be more independence, more transparency and
recognition that football is too important in this country - too important
to fans."
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