Roman Abramovich rejects offer to sell Chelsea from LA Dodgers co-owner

Roman Abramovich is demanding $3 billion (£2.2bn) to sell
Chelsea after rejecting an offer from Los Angeles Dodgers’
co-owner Todd Boehly, according to reports.

Abramovich, who bought Chelsea in 2003, has been linked
with selling the club after encountering difficulties in
renewing his UK visa in 2018, which has prevented him from
regularly attending games at Stamford Bridge.

But the 53-year-old watched his first competitive Chelsea
match in more than a year in May as his club beat Arsenal in
the Europa League final in Baku.

Reports last month claimed that Abramovich has now
reversed his decision to consider selling Chelsea following
Frank Lampard’s encouraging start as manager.

And The Wall Street Journal reports that Boehly’s offer to
buy Chelsea was rejected by Abramovich in November.The report claims that Boehly’s bid fell short of
Abramovich’s $3bn (£2.2bn) valuation of Chelsea.

Boehly, who owns 20 per cent of Major League Baseball side
Los Angeles Dodgers, has also been linked with a takeover
bid for Tottenham earlier this year.

‘Football’s the biggest sport in the world,’ Boehly said in an
interview with Bloomberg in September.
‘The passion that the fans have for the sport and the teams
is unparalleled.

‘So when you start to think about what you’re trying to build
with these teams you’re really trying to win and be part of a
community.‘Opportunity that we had with the Dodgers was really about a
partnership with Los Angeles. How are we going to win?

How are we going to drive championships? How are we
going to build passion?
‘If you look at what the Premier League offers it’s all of
those things.

‘It’s the highest quality play, it’s the best players.
‘You also have a media market that’s just really developing.

One of the great things the Premier League has is that it’s
on Saturday morning in America. So you have an
uncongested time slot that is now fully dominated by
Premier League.

‘NBC has done an amazing job bringing that content. When I
was growing up there was Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, but
certainly I didn’t know about Man United, I didn’t know about
Chelsea, I didn’t know about Tottenham.
‘Kids these days are fully aware of what’s the best and
Premier League these days are the best.’