Chelsea Football Club: Sales

(asked on 21st June 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on the sale of Chelsea Football Club; and whether the Government will consult on that sale with (a) Ukrainian and (b) other international civil society groups.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 27th June 2022

On 24 May the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) issued a licence to Chelsea Football Club to allow the sale of Chelsea FC PLC. We have worked in coordination with international partners to ensure that relevant licences from other jurisdictions have also been issued.

The Club has now transferred ownership to the Boehly-Clearlake consortium. This means that the Club is no longer subject to sanctions.The proceeds are being held in a frozen account and any onward transfer requires a further Government licence to enable that to happen. Abramovich cannot access those funds without a Government licence.

Abramovich has made a number of public statements regarding his intention to transfer the proceeds to the victims of the war in Ukraine. We have agreed a Deed of Undertaking in which he commits the proceeds to a charity in a jurisdiction agreed by the Government for the purposes of helping victims of the war in Ukraine. Any future movement of the sale revenue will be assessed in line with sanctions obligations and the position outlined in the Deed.

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