Chelsea up for sale, what's next?

On Wednesday night, Roman Abramovich announced that Chelsea Football Club was up for sale. The announcement came an hour before the club were due to play in the 5th Round of the FA Cup. Suffice to say, it sent shock waves through football as journalists scrambled to get the latest information.

Roman Abramovich, a figure who transformed the Premier League, let alone Chelsea, would be leaving.

Abramovich bought the club from Ken Bates in 2003 for 150 million pounds. The club were a top-six side and had won trophies but infrastructure etc. were lacking. The investment came pouring in and 21 trophies later, Chelsea are the best club in the world, factually. The men’s team, the women’s team, the academy are all at the top tier of their respective arenas. As an owner, no one has been better.

Abramovich is of course selling the club due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Russian oligarchs everywhere are under pressure, although no one has sanctioned Abramovich yet. In his statement, Roman said that he will waive off the 1.5 billion pounds in debt that Chelsea owe him. Net proceeds would go to establishing a charity foundation that would help Ukraine.

Fans would all agree that as an owner, Abramovich will never be replaced by the club. The level of investment is impossible unless the next owner is from the Middle-East. Roman promised that he would sell the club to someone who would put the club first and carry on what he has established. With all that in mind, below are three things that should be done at Chelsea in this new era.

Build on Chelsea's strong foundations

As mentioned above, the club are at the top of the men’s, and women’s game along with having a brilliant academy. Thomas Tuchel and Emma Hayes are fantastic managers while Neil Bath has done brilliant work at Cobham. Marina Granovskaia, the director at the club, is well respected and has run the club for seasons now. Petr Cech, the technical director, has also added value to the team.

These people are all solid corner stones upon which the club is functioning at the moment. Everyone has already proved themselves adept at handling turbulent times - Covid, the Super League fiasco, and now this. The club has continued to function. Any prospective owner does not need to shake things up at the club and should just allow these figures to go about their business.

The respective squads don’t need serious investment as well. Emma Hayes has built a brilliant women’s team in her image. Tuchel is just getting started but major surgery is not needed for the squad.

Chelsea have been a sell-to-buy club over the last few seasons and I expect that to continue under new ownership as well. The written off debt should allow the new owner to build upon these foundations.

Give supporters a voice

Post the Super League fiasco, there has been a clamor amongst many English clubs for a 50+1 policy to be introduced in England. It is a rule that is the corner stone of the Bundesliga, which states that no commercial investor can have more than a 49 percent stake in the club. This means that fans hold the majority of the voting rights and are in control of their clubs.

In light of Roman’s announcement, the Chelsea Supporters Trust came out with a statement asking for five key things from any prospective owner, as seen in the tweet below.

These are not far-fetched demands by the club’s fans but basic points that should be fulfilled as a trust-building move by the new owners. These points would allow fans to have a greater say in macro decisions at the club and would block the owners from ever making a decision behind the fans' back.

The club is looking at owners from countries that don’t have political tension. No billionaire is clean, because to have that much money, you have to do some questionable things. Countries like the ones in the Middle-East are known to have questionable human rights as well. While the level of investment would not match other owners, at least the club would avoid some serious red flags.

The Stamford Bridge issue

Last but not least is the issue of Stamford Bridge. Located in a prime location in south-west London, the stadium has been Chelsea’s home since the beginning. The problem is that it is quite small for a club of Chelsea’s size and can only seat 40,000 supporters. That is quite low compared to a team like Tottenham whose stadium can seat 62,000 and they aren’t even the biggest club in North London.

Fewer seats means less revenue and the club has a global fanbase that can easily fill a stadium if it were expanded. There were plans to renovate Stamford Bridge under Abramovich, but after his visa was canceled in 2019 Abramovich pulled those plans back. The problem is that it isn’t as simple as just renovating the stadium.

The Bridge is located right next to a railway line, and has housing societies surrounding it. The pitch is owned by the Chelsea Pitch Owners. They own the freehold of Stamford Bridge and the naming rights of the club. That means that if a new owner wants to relocate the stadium and call the club Chelsea Football Club, they need 75% of the CPO shareholders to agree.

Rebuilding Stamford Bridge would cost around one billion pounds and that was the estimate back in 2018. It would be much cheaper to relocate and that is an idea fans will have to get on board with. Chelsea cannot continue to exist as one of the best clubs in the world when they have a stadium that is smaller than Sunderland's.

Overall, it is not doom and gloom for fans. Chelsea will continue to be a powerhouse in football thanks to what Roman Abramovich has built. There are issues that need to be solved, and there is uncertainty. Change can be scary and owners like Abramovich rarely come by.

There is no doubt that Chelsea will have to be more methodical in their approach to transfers, etc. The managerial merri-go-round should also cease to exist, which is good because Tuchel is great. Like Thomas Tuchel said, a new owner will get an organized and well-run club with strong foundations. Only time will tell whether the club can replicate the success of the last 20 years.