Could this be the way Spotify’s Daniel Ek gets his Premier League football team?
The hammer is coming down HARD on Russian oligarchs in hopes that they will pressure Vladimir Putin to get out of Ukraine. Not only are punishing economic sanctions everywhere they look, but they, too, are becoming international pariahs by their association with Vlad. And, let’s face it, just by being Russian.
Roman Abramovitch, the steel and energy oligarch, is really feeling the heat. Not only is he selling his properties in London, but he now wants to divest himself of one of his most treasured possessions: Chelsea of the EPL, a team he’s owned since 2003.
He just put the team up for sale through a US bank with an asking price of £3 billion (a little more than CAD$5 billion). His first preference is an American buyer but others are kicking the tires including a Swiss billionaire. He apparently wants a quick sale of many of his assets before the sanctions hit.
Might Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO, be interested? Remember that Ek made an unsolicited and unsuccessful bid for Arsenal last year. Instead, he settled for an expensive sponsorship with Barcelona of the Spanish league.
Question: Would Ek be a potential buyer of Chelsea? We’ll see.
