O/T:- Roman Abramovich hands over Chelsea control

[jackal2]

Pity he couldn't come out and say he disagrees with his friend Putin's actions which would have had a lot more meaning.

True, although a dangerous thing to do if he's currently in Russia!

It might be an unfashionable opinion right now, but I think Roman Abramovich has actually been a pretty good football club owner. When he first arrived at Chelsea I thought it would be the classic 'billionaire buys toy and then gets bored with it' story, but he's been around for a long time and seems to have a genuine interest in football and at least some sense of responsibility towards the club he owns.

Obviously, you have to question how he accumulated the wealth he uses to bankroll Chelsea, and his relationship with Putin, but let's face it, you can question the morality and the funding sources of a number of other top club owners, not least the new owners of Newcastle.

Football fans are understandably having a crisis of conscience right now in view of what's happening in the Ukraine, but quite a lot of them soon forget such moral concerns when the next multi-million pound big name signing arrives at their club. The same goes for TV broadcasters like Sky who will tell you on their main news channel how terrible and unfair the events in the Ukraine are (which indeed they are), but will then tell you on Sky Sports News how all these big-name signings (funded by questionable sources) are so exciting make the Premier League the best in the world.