Chelsea owner in court battle

[emad]

Terry Macalister
Wednesday January 19, 2005
The Guardian

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich today faces formal legal action in a Swiss court which could potentially lead to his assets in Chelsea football club being frozen.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development - part-funded by the British taxpayer - said it was seeking to recover $17.4m (£9m) through proceedings in the Fribourg court against Mr Abramovich and a colleague.

Last night a war of words broke out between the Russian billionaire and the bank. Mr Abramovich's side accused the bank of "negligence" and warned he might bring a defamation case if certain allegations against him were repeated by the EBRD.

The Fribourg case centres on a loan given to a Swiss oil trading company, Runicom SA, which was controlled by Mr Abramovich and Eugene Shvidler, chief executive of Russia's Sibneft oil company.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1393543,00.html

[musiclawyer]

1. I really don't like these nouveau rich guy buying teams

Yeah they inject team with some cash to buy some players, and maybe its working for now for Chelsea, but long term, they tend to fuck things up. BTW I wish English football would have a salary cap. It's like American Baseball where only a handful of teams have a realistic chance of winning. Relegation would then be meaningful.