For his favorite soccer team Chelsea, Roman Abramovich is seeking up to $4.4 billion.
According to reports, the rich oligarch requested that all bidders increase their offers by $627 million this week.
Abramovich wants to donate the excess funds to an organization that helps victims of Ukraine's war.
According to multiple reports in the UK media, billionaire Russian Roman Abramovich increased the asking price for Chelsea FC by £500 million ($627 million) during the final stages of bidding.According to a report published by The Athletic on Thursday, Abramovich has asked the three remaining bidders for the current European and World club champions to provide the additional funding on the condition that it be used to fund a foundation the oligarch wants to establish to aid victims of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
According to the Athletic, the overall cost of buying Chelsea will be around £3.5 billion ($4.4 billion), with roughly £2.5 billion ($3.14 billion) going to the new Ukraine foundation and the remaining £1 billion ($1.26 billion) going to investing directly in Chelsea.
According to Sky News, extra monies were asked in discussions this week between the consortiums bidding buy Chelsea and Abramovich's close cronies.
Three companies are still in the running to buy Chelsea. The first, led by British industrialist Sir Martin Broughton, has Lewis Hamilton and Serena Williams as investors.
The others are from a group led by Todd Boehly, a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball franchise, and Stephen Pagliuca, a part-owner of both the NBA's Boston Celtics and Atalanta, an Italian soccer team.
According to The Athletic, all three groups were irritated by the new cash demands, but not to the point of withdrawing their bids.
Abramovich is close to President Vladimir Putin, but he has tried to remove himself from the conflict, even offering to act as a mediator in Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations.
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, he put Chelsea up for sale, claiming that his continuing association with the club was an unneeded distraction. He was sanctioned by the UK government a few days later, putting the deal in jeopardy.
The government, on the other hand, approved a special license to allow the sale to proceed, with the American bank Raine Group leading the charge. The license was granted on the condition that the new owner be approved by the British government.While the UK government is allowing the sale to go, it is growing impatient with the length of time it is taking to find a buyer.
The club is "living on borrowed time," according to Nadine Dorries, the UK's culture secretary, who told the BBC on Thursday.
"Chelsea is being sold, as you know," she stated on the BBC's Newscast podcast, "and the sanctions apply, so the sanctions apply during the sale."
"That sale has only a few days left. "It has to happen quickly," she added, adding that the time frame is "weeks, not months." "when Chris Mason, the host, pressed him.
"All I'd say right now is that Chelsea is on borrowed time," Dorries concluded.
Insider published the original story.
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