Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Football London
Football London
Sport
Danyal Khan

Chelsea sale: What former Arsenal owner is doing amid Todd Boehly and Jim Ratcliffe bids

Former part-Arsenal owner David Dein will be part of the UK Government's strategy to decide where money from the Roman Abramovich Chelsea sale goes after the takeover is complete.

On the takeover itself, Todd Boehly is the current favourite as he is in a short period of exclusivity at this moment regarding talks with Abramovich and co to get this deal agreed. If his consortium involving Clearlake Capital cannot come to a compromise by the end of this weekend, then Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Stephen Pagliuca and Sir Martin Broughton are all waiting in the shadows to pounce if an opportunity presents itself.

Whilst we are in key days of a sale that needs to be done by the end of May according to terms agreed upon the UK Government's license that they placed on the club when the sanctions were announced all those months ago, talk has turned to where the money will be going once £4.25m plus asking price is met by the remaining candidates. Now, a large proportion of the money will be going to Ukrainian charities who are still feeling the brunt of the war crimes that their neighbours Russia are inflicting for all of the world to see.

READ MORE: Chelsea sale: The Raine Group's takeover stance revealed amid Jim Ratcliffe and Todd Boehly bids

This was the initial plan made by Abramovich when his sanctions were announced and when he released the club statement regarding wiping off all the debt the club owned to him that had been accumulated during his 19 years stewardship of the club. However now, as per The Times, Ambassador for the Premier League Dein is urging the UK Government to also save some money to invest into grassroots football in order to help the future generations have the best chances possible to make it to the top level in this country.

The report goes on to clarify the intricacies of the former part-Arsenal owner's plans with what he wants to see be done with the mega amounts of money that will undoubtedly be generated from a sale that is estimated to break the record of the most expensive sports club to be sold in England ever. Dein's plan as per the article with the £750million involves building more than 1,000 artificial pitches all across the UK. On top of this, some of the money that could be allocated to this project could go into improving the surfaces of the current pitches out there. Finally, the well known businessman is also keen in having more changing rooms built - all are points of which the infrastructure surrounding grassroots football in this country would change for the better.

At this current moment, these are hypothetical plans, so there is someway to go in negotiations before Dein gets his £750milllion wish from Abramovich's sale to improve the state of the grassroots game for the good of all the aspiring footballers out there.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.