Far less than half of the £2.35billion generated from Roman Abramovich's sale of Chelsea could go to victims of the war in Ukraine as promised, new accounts suggested today.
The oligarch was forced to sell Chelsea in 2022 after being sanctioned over his alleged ties to Vladimir Putin following Russia's invasion of its neighbour.
The government pledged all the money from the sale would be sent to support humanitarian causes in Ukraine.
But today it emerged that a fraction of the £2.35billion paid by Todd Boehly for the London Premier League giants may go to help people caught up in the European war.
Company accounts linked to the sale have revealed that only the 'net proceeds' would be gifted to a charitable foundation - because loans totalling £1.54billlon need to be settled with Abramovich-owned companies first.
This would leave around £987million of the £2.35billion to be given to war victims. One expert has said that there will now be real fears that no payment will be made at all.
University of Liverpool academic Kieran Maguire, one of Britain's top football finance experts said today: 'The expectation that the full proceeds of the sale of Chelsea would go to the victims of the Ukraine war appear to have been overplayed'.
Another complication is also said to be a dispute between Abramovich and the British government over where the Chelsea sale money should be spent. The Oligarch has been clear since 2022 that he wants the cash to be used to support both Ukrainians and Russians caught up in the war.
Mr Maguire told The Times: 'The slow progress in distributing the money, partially due to queries raised by parties connected to Abramovich, and the loans repayable to his offshore funding company, could result in a much smaller than anticipated distribution, assuming that one is finally made'.
All the money from the sale three years ago remains frozen in the bank account of Fordstam Ltd, the former parent company of Chelsea which is owned by Abramovich.
And Fordstam Ltd's much delayed accounts have finally been published - and suggest that loans to the Abramovich-owned company totalling £1.54billlon need to be paid off first before any money can go to support Ukrainian charities.
If the loans and other costs are paid in full, this would mean that around £987million of the £2.35billion sale price would remain available for good causes.
American billionaire Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital paid £2.5billion for Chelsea in 2022, and after transaction-related expenses such as legal fees, £2.3billion was left.
At the time of the sale, Roman Abramovich's press office said he 'wanted the proceeds to be transferred to a charitable foundation for the needs of the victims on both sides of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.'
But since then the £2.3billion has remained frozen.
Fordstam Ltd accounts for the year ending on June 2022 have been published on Companies House, which were finally signed off on October 10 this year.
The accounts include an ongoing concern, which casts doubt on whether the full proceeds of the sale will go to victims of the war in Ukraine.
'The intention of the owner of Fordstam limited, Roman Abramovich, as announced in a public statement is for the company to gift the net proceeds of sale, after allowing for other balance sheet items, to a charitable foundation set up to benefit those who have suffered due to the war in Ukraine,' the accounts state.
'Once this is done and all balance sheet items cleared then the intention is to liquidate the company.'
Fordstam's accounts show that the company made a net profit of £987million, while £1.42bn is owed to Camberley International Investments Limited.
The company, registered in Jersey, is owned by Abramovich.
In total, the outstanding balance on all related party loans was £1.54billion as of June 30 in 2022.
Neither the loans or the funds for a charitable foundation can be released from the accounts until the Office of Financial Sanctions (OFSI) grants a licence.
In June, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and then foreign secretary David Lammy warned ministers were 'deeply frustrated' at the lack of progress in unlocking the frozen funds and said legal action was on the table.
'The Government is determined to see the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine, following Russia's illegal full-scale invasion,' the statement read.
'We are deeply frustrated that it has not been possible to reach agreement on this with Mr Abramovich so far.
'While the door for negotiations will remain open, we are fully prepared to pursue this through the courts if required, to ensure people suffering in Ukraine can benefit from these proceeds as soon as possible.'
In June this year the Daily Mail revealed how Chelsea were weeks from extinction as part of a risky game of chicken linked to the club's forced sale.
As the UK Government's deadline of May 31, 2022 for the club to be sold approached, Roman Abramovich's trusted aide Marina Granovskaia was ready to ignore them, and risk one of the game's global giants going into oblivion.
Granovskaia believed she could call the bluff of Boris Johnson's administration after Abramovich was sanctioned following Russia's invasion of Ukraine for ties to Vladimir Putin.
Amid a chokehold that meant Chelsea could not even sell tickets to matches, Granovskaia gambled - arguing that it was impossible to conduct a sale this size in 12 months, never mind three.
Granovskaia and Chelsea were hauled back from the brink by the club's other executives, and so began a jaw-dropping saga as they scrambled to sell the Premier League side - including a poisoning, a war zone, Volodymyr Zelensky intervening on Abramovich's behalf, and a bizarre call from Romelu Lukaku.
That saga is detailed in a new book released five months ago, called Sanctioned: The Inside Story of the Sale of Chelsea FC.
Chelsea executives, it is claimed in Sanctioned, could not countenance Granovskaia's gamble. In the end, the consensus was they could not chance it, and so began the rush, with 20-hour working days becoming the norm.
Abramovich himself agreed to be interviewed for the book twice – once in Istanbul in January 2024, and again in Abu Dhabi in January 2025 – as he breaks his silence for the first time since being forced into selling up.
He is not quoted extensively, save for a few paragraphs in the epilogue, though the detail in the author’s stories is in depth and seemingly sourced via those who were at the beating heart of this saga from start to finish.
It paints a positive picture of Abramovich, portraying him as a neutral peacemaker working covertly on a mediation mission from the moment of Russia’s invasion, with the billionaire navigating live war zones in travelling by road convoy through Poland and into Ukraine with gunfire and rocket shelling as his soundtrack.
It was after one such round of Abramovich brokering talks in Kyiv that he retired to an apartment where food had been left on the dining table for him and his two aides. There, however, he was soon struck by searing pain as he lost consciousness.
When he woke, he could not see, with symptoms also including peeling skin and shedding hair as they travelled to a nearby hospital, convincing the soldiers guarding the facility that they were civilians in need of genuine help.
Abramovich’s vision has never returned to what it was, apparently.
This poisoning coincided with Chelsea facing Luton in the FA Cup fifth round on March 2, 2022. The build-up to that fixture was overshadowed by a statement suddenly released by Abramovich revealing he was putting the Premier League club up for sale.
It was hurriedly drafted in less than 30 minutes by two of his aides, who set up a makeshift office on the floor of Heathrow Airport's arrivals hall after they had landed back in London to his orders.
There are claims that Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky privately urged the UK Government to refrain from sanctioning Abramovich, explaining how he was working as their go-between.
The book adds how Ukrainian delegates credit the billionaire with helping create humanitarian corridors which saved the lives of thousands of civilians in war-torn areas such as Mariupol.
But Abramovich was sanctioned nonetheless.
