Let's All Laugh At... Let's all laugh at Chelsea thread

[TheChosenOne]

Did you need to overtake it because you were desperate to get home for a shit?

I was on the way to school, not coming back. That radio show only mentions the two Manchester clubs, plus Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

 

[marion52]

I’m not laughing as my other half is going to a cup final yet again while I sit at home alone

Jealous or what

 

[Armstrong_11]

I’m not laughing as my other half is going to a cup final yet again while I sit at home alone

Jealous or what

Great chance for them to qualify for the Europa league. Again.

 

[UncleBuck]

Why on earth is there talk of Benitez going back? Geezer got shafted by them, shirley says no chance!

 

[Danners9]

A clip of Willian's instagram story. Conte is blocked out by the cups. Costa did the same thing last year apparently.

 

[riggi]

A clip of Willian's instagram story. Conte is blocked out by the cups. Costa did the same thing last year apparently.

Hearing it's fake?

 

[Danners9]

Hearing it's fake?

It isn't. I am watching it right now.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/willianborges88/

the third one.

 

[Saoirse]

Financial Times report that Roman Abramovich wasn't at the Cup Final yesterday - because the Home Office have delayed the renewal of his visa...

 

[coys200]

 

[Saoirse]

"UK authorities have yet to renew Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s visa after it expired last month, three people close to the billionaire have told the FT, as geopolitical tensions rise between Moscow and the west. The Kremlin-connected, London-based Mr Abramovich — who, with a net worth of £9.3bn, is Britain’s 13th-richest man according to the Sunday Times — has returned to Russia after his investor visa ran out, according to two people close to him. Mr Abramovich did not attend Saturday’s FA Cup final, which Chelsea, the team he owns, won 1-0. Fellow oligarchs Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin were both in London last week for a high-profile court case between the two men. Mr Deripaska is subject to far-reaching US sanctions that prohibit US citizens from doing business with him. A third person close to Mr Abramovich said that his request for a new visa had not been denied, but said that UK authorities were taking longer than usual to renew it without offering any explanation. The Home Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. More details to come."

 

[worcestersauce]

Must have some Spurs fans working at the home office

 

[kr1978]

Financial Times report that Roman Abramovich wasn't at the Cup Final yesterday - because the Home Office have delayed the renewal of his visa...

It would be such a shame if they didn’t renew his visa and he called in all his ‘loans’ and pulled all his money out of Chelsea

 

[Saoirse]

An update from the Financial Times:

UK has not renewed Roman Abramovich’s visa
Oligarch and owner of Chelsea football club returns to Russia

• Roman Abramovich misses FA Cup final after visa expired
• Home Office does not comment on why investor visa has not been issued
• Linked to residence applications in Jersey and Switzerland

The UK has yet to renew a visa for Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch and owner of Chelsea football club, after it expired last month, according to four people close to the billionaire.

London-based Mr Abramovich, who is Britain’s 13th richest man according to the Sunday Times with £9.3bn, left the UK after his investor visa expired and did not attend Chelsea’s 1-0 win in the FA Cup final on Saturday.

He also did not testify as expected last week in a London court dispute between two other Russian oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin.

Pressure is growing to take action against Russian oligarchs in London after the poisoning in March of ex-Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a rare nerve agent in Salisbury. At the time, foreign secretary Boris Johnson promised that the UK would “go after the money” in retaliation of the attack.

David Davidovich, an associate of Mr Abramovich’s holding company Millhouse, told the court that Mr Abramovich was in Switzerland preparing to appear as a defendant in a separate case.

“There’s something up with his visa. I don’t know what it is and they don’t know what it is either. Let’s hope they sort it out soon,” a fellow Russian oligarch said.

One person close to Mr Abramovich said that the request for a visa had not been denied, but that the UK authorities were taking longer than usual to renew it without offering any explanation. A spokesman for Mr Abramovich declined to comment.

The Home Office declined to comment. “We do not routinely comment on individual cases,” said security minister Ben Wallace.

Bob Seely, a Conservative MP, said: “Either there is an innocent explanation [for the delay in Mr Abramovich’s visa], or the government is becoming less sympathetic to Russian oligarchs in the UK. Either way, denying visas to oligarchs is potentially important.”

The news of Mr Abramovich’s visa limbo was first reported by independent Russian news site The Bell.

Funding for new Chelsea stadium unclear

“These things happen for mysterious reasons. It must be very frustrating for him not to be able to visit his beloved Chelsea,” said William Browder, a fund manager who campaigns for sanctions against the flow of Russian money into western capitals.

Chelsea, which Mr Abramovich bought in 2003, did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The billionaire is known to take a close interest in club affairs, though its day-to-day management is under the control of Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia and chairman Bruce Buck.

Chelsea has obtained planning permission to build a new £500m stadium at Stamford Bridge, preparing to break ground on the project in the coming years. It remains unclear how the stadium project will be funded. People close to the plans have said Mr Abramovich, possibly alongside other investors, could cover the cost without the need to tap the club’s finances.

Jersey offered residence to Abramovich

Mr Abramovich grew his fortune in Russia’s turbulent 1990s by acquiring privatised oil and gas assets from the state, then selling them back to Kremlin at a large profit. He has spent much of his time in London since buying Chelsea, where he owns an estate on the so-called Billionaire’s Row in Kensington Palace Gardens.

The US named Mr Abramovich on a public “Kremlin Report” of oligarchs in January.

That month, the authorities in Jersey made Mr Abramovich an offer of residency, which would see him pay no capital gains tax or inheritance tax and a one per cent income tax rate following an initial payment of £145,000 a year.

Mr Abramovich has not taken up the offer, according to a person close to him. In February, Swiss newspapers reported that Mr Abramovich had twice applied for a residency permit there in 2016 and 2017. Mr Abramovich sued to have the information deleted, but Switzerland’s highest court ruled in favour of the newspapers, Le Matin Dimanche and Sonntags Zeitung. Mr Abramovich withdrew his application, according to a person close to him.

Home secretary Amber Rudd said in March that Britain would review Tier 1 visas given between 2008 and 2015 to businessmen prepared to invest at least £1m, including about 700 Russians. The qualifying amount has now been raised to £2m.

On its website the Home Office tells applicants: “You should get a decision on your visa within 3 weeks.”

According to Transparency International, almost a quarter of all such visas handed out by the UK government between 2008 and 2015 went to Russians, accounting for a minimum of £729m in investment.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly encouraged oligarchs to “de-offshorise” their wealth, but with little success. Despite high demand for a $3bn Russian eurobond late last year, only $200m was bought by oligarchs under special amnesty terms.

 

[nailsy]

Is this to do with the spy poisoning?

 

['O Zio]

Is this to do with the spy poisoning?

I would assume so. Presumably all Russians applying for visas now get extra levels of scrutiny etc.

 

[yankspurs]

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

They are worried over on The Shed End. Reading some of the posts they seem to think Roman is like a favoured son to Putin. If that’s true then fuck him. I mean he’s a **** anyway for how he made his money if stories are to be believed but if he’s in like that with Putin we shouldn’t be inviting him to live here.

http://www.theshedend.com/topic/31832-is-this-the-end-of-roman-era-at-cfc/

 

['O Zio]

They are worried over on The Shed End. Reading some of the posts they seem to think Roman is like a favoured son to Putin. If that’s true then fuck him. I mean he’s a **** anyway for how he made his money if stories are to be believed but if he’s in like that with Putin we shouldn’t be inviting him to live here.

http://www.theshedend.com/topic/31832-is-this-the-end-of-roman-era-at-cfc/

Favoured son is a bit far but he's one of the ones on Putin's good side, that's why he's not dead or in jail like some of the other oligarchs. Putin basically demanded that they support his campaign both using their influence and financially. The ones that didn't play along have since either ended up in prison and had all their money confiscated, or have been mysteriously killed or disappeared. Abramovic did side with Putin so has been allowed to keep his money that was stolen from the Russian people. However, the main reason he bought a PL club was to establish himself as a well-known figure in the west. That way if Putin ever changes his mind and decides he's of no use to him any more, it theoretically at least makes it harder for Putin to just "disappear" him etc. That said, given everything that's gone on with Litvenenko and Skripal, it seems pretty clear that Putin isn't all that bothered about taking people out on British soil anyway so maybe Roman's plan isn't so brilliant after all...

 

[markiespurs]

An update from the Financial Times:

UK has not renewed Roman Abramovich’s visa
Oligarch and owner of Chelsea football club returns to Russia

• Roman Abramovich misses FA Cup final after visa expired
• Home Office does not comment on why investor visa has not been issued
• Linked to residence applications in Jersey and Switzerland

The UK has yet to renew a visa for Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch and owner of Chelsea football club, after it expired last month, according to four people close to the billionaire.

London-based Mr Abramovich, who is Britain’s 13th richest man according to the Sunday Times with £9.3bn, left the UK after his investor visa expired and did not attend Chelsea’s 1-0 win in the FA Cup final on Saturday.

He also did not testify as expected last week in a London court dispute between two other Russian oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin.

Pressure is growing to take action against Russian oligarchs in London after the poisoning in March of ex-Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a rare nerve agent in Salisbury. At the time, foreign secretary Boris Johnson promised that the UK would “go after the money” in retaliation of the attack.

David Davidovich, an associate of Mr Abramovich’s holding company Millhouse, told the court that Mr Abramovich was in Switzerland preparing to appear as a defendant in a separate case.

“There’s something up with his visa. I don’t know what it is and they don’t know what it is either. Let’s hope they sort it out soon,” a fellow Russian oligarch said.

One person close to Mr Abramovich said that the request for a visa had not been denied, but that the UK authorities were taking longer than usual to renew it without offering any explanation. A spokesman for Mr Abramovich declined to comment.

The Home Office declined to comment. “We do not routinely comment on individual cases,” said security minister Ben Wallace.

Bob Seely, a Conservative MP, said: “Either there is an innocent explanation [for the delay in Mr Abramovich’s visa], or the government is becoming less sympathetic to Russian oligarchs in the UK. Either way, denying visas to oligarchs is potentially important.”

The news of Mr Abramovich’s visa limbo was first reported by independent Russian news site The Bell.

Funding for new Chelsea stadium unclear

“These things happen for mysterious reasons. It must be very frustrating for him not to be able to visit his beloved Chelsea,” said William Browder, a fund manager who campaigns for sanctions against the flow of Russian money into western capitals.

Chelsea, which Mr Abramovich bought in 2003, did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The billionaire is known to take a close interest in club affairs, though its day-to-day management is under the control of Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia and chairman Bruce Buck.

Chelsea has obtained planning permission to build a new £500m stadium at Stamford Bridge, preparing to break ground on the project in the coming years. It remains unclear how the stadium project will be funded. People close to the plans have said Mr Abramovich, possibly alongside other investors, could cover the cost without the need to tap the club’s finances.

Jersey offered residence to Abramovich

Mr Abramovich grew his fortune in Russia’s turbulent 1990s by acquiring privatised oil and gas assets from the state, then selling them back to Kremlin at a large profit. He has spent much of his time in London since buying Chelsea, where he owns an estate on the so-called Billionaire’s Row in Kensington Palace Gardens.

The US named Mr Abramovich on a public “Kremlin Report” of oligarchs in January.

That month, the authorities in Jersey made Mr Abramovich an offer of residency, which would see him pay no capital gains tax or inheritance tax and a one per cent income tax rate following an initial payment of £145,000 a year.

Mr Abramovich has not taken up the offer, according to a person close to him. In February, Swiss newspapers reported that Mr Abramovich had twice applied for a residency permit there in 2016 and 2017. Mr Abramovich sued to have the information deleted, but Switzerland’s highest court ruled in favour of the newspapers, Le Matin Dimanche and Sonntags Zeitung. Mr Abramovich withdrew his application, according to a person close to him.

Home secretary Amber Rudd said in March that Britain would review Tier 1 visas given between 2008 and 2015 to businessmen prepared to invest at least £1m, including about 700 Russians. The qualifying amount has now been raised to £2m.

On its website the Home Office tells applicants: “You should get a decision on your visa within 3 weeks.”

According to Transparency International, almost a quarter of all such visas handed out by the UK government between 2008 and 2015 went to Russians, accounting for a minimum of £729m in investment.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly encouraged oligarchs to “de-offshorise” their wealth, but with little success. Despite high demand for a $3bn Russian eurobond late last year, only $200m was bought by oligarchs under special amnesty terms.

Intresting that the Home office wheeled out a security minister rather than a Immigration minister to give a response

 

[TheChosenOne]

I can't see Chelsea's new stadium costing £500 Mill.


That's a bargain bucket venture.