Roman Abramovich was forced to sell Chelsea last year due to sanctions against oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin (in the context of the war in Ukraine), and The Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism now report that he would have been secretly financed by the Dutch group as well as Vitesse Arnhem (during his ownership of the London club).

Roman Abramovich secretly financed the Vitess Arnhem club

Two investigations by the Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) failed to reveal any financial link between Abramovich and Vitesse and concluded that the Russian oligarch had no managerial influence over Vitesse. Both “Vitess” under the leadership of the then owners, and “Chelsea”, whose owner is Abramovich, repeatedly denied the oligarch’s involvement in financing the Dutch club.

But the financial information has surfaced in the Oligarh files, a cache of data leaks originating from the Cypriot offshore company MeritServus. The documents, seen by the cited sources, appear to reveal for the first time at least €117m of Abramovich’s secret funding for the Vitesse takeover, which was channeled through a series of companies registered in offshore tax havens.

When former Georgian football player Merab Jordania took charge of the Dutch team in 2010, connections with Chelsea were suspected. At the first press conference, he called Abramovich his friend, but denied the oligarch’s involvement.

The Dutch FA launched its first investigation into the financing of the club’s takeover, but found nothing in breach of its rules.

Suspicion continued after the takeover of the club, when Chelsea used Vitesse (who play in the Eredivisie) as a partner club, a group where players who were not yet ready for the demands of the Premier League could go on loan. Many Chelsea players have gone on loan to Vitesse over the years, including Serbian international Nemanja Matic and current Chelsea and England star Mason Mount, who played for Vitesse in 2017/18.

Further questions arose after Jordania left in 2013 and another Abramovich associate, Russian businessman Oleksandr Chygyrinsky, took over the club. “Vitess” and “Jordania” then reported that Chygyrinsky was already financially involved in the club since the takeover in 2010.

In April 2014, Jordan claimed that Chelsea were involved, pointing out that Vitesse were unable to strengthen their squad in their bid to win the Eredivisie and qualify for the Champions League because “London didn’t want it”. He later retracted his comments and later said the claim was untrue.

The revelations led to a second investigation by the KNVB, which concluded that “there is no indication that Chelsea have a say in the politics of Vitesse”.

In 2017, The Guardian noted that associates of Abramovich were involved in the takeover of Vitesse. Chelsea declined to comment at the time, saying only: “We enjoy a close working relationship with Vitesse Arnhem, as we do with other clubs.”

UEFA rules require clubs playing against each other to have different owners to ensure the integrity of the competition.”

Documents leaked to the media show that Abramovich financed Vitesse with a series of loans worth at least €117 million until the end of 2015.

Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 after becoming a billionaire and spent £2bn to fund the signing of world-class stars.