Mellor concerned about Chelsea takeover

Former UK Football Task Force chairman David Mellor has welcomed the arrival of Chelsea’s new owner Roman Abramovich – but warned the Russian billionaire against the perils of toying with the fortunes of the Barclaycard Premiership club.

Chairman Ken Bates last night agreed to sell his majority shareholding in Chelsea Village Plc to Abramovich, whose wealth is estimated to be round €5.5bn – with the oil tycoon claiming to possess the “resources and ambition” to take Chelsea forwards.

While life-long Chelsea fan Mellor is happy to see a man of Abramovich’s substantial financial standing investing in the Stamford Bridge club, he is concerned about what could happen if things do not go as planned.

“What I think that we have to hope, as Chelsea fans, is the kind of investment that is being talked of will give Chelsea a good run-out in the Champions League,” Mellor told BBC Radio Five Live in England.

“The club faced the prospect of not being able to do much in the transfer market this year... given the pressure of some of the debt repayments... and that’s why I think Ken Bates was looking towards a person for whom a couple of hundred million is mere bagatelle and in Mr Abramovich he appears to have found such a guy.

“This is a power-play by an extremely wealthy man... and as far as he is concerned, Chelsea Football Club, with their entrance into the Champions League, is a fitting vehicle for his ambitions.... and what he will want to do will be to put his resources into the club and if money can buy success, there is a fair chance that Chelsea might achieve.

“I think the worrying thing is when people buy football clubs that they regard as a play-thing and the rest of us have invested quite a lot of our life interest in, that they become bored.

“Mr (Mohamed Al) Fayed came in, he chucked a lot of money around, over £100m (€143m), Fulham achieved some success, but now we have moved beyond the point of investment, to disillusionment, disenchantment and I would not be at all surprised if Mr Fayed doesn’t disengage from Fulham sometime during this season leaving them to return from whence they came.”

Fellow Chelsea fan and British Member of Parliament Tony Banks has called for the takeover to be investigated by current British Sports Minister Richard Caborn.

But Mellor insisted: “At the end of the day, rightly or wrongly, private companies are there to be bought and sold by other private people and whatever reservations all of us may have about this turn of events, it isn’t really a matter for ministers.”

Mellor also felt Bates had little option but to look for an investor if Chelsea were going to maintain their place among the top sides in Europe.

He reflected: “The difficulty of servicing that debt as well as meeting the aspiration of fans – the players wages were costing him millions each year – was becoming a bit of a nightmare.

“For better or for worse, this is petty cash to Abramovich, but quite what he is going to make of it remains to be seen.”