What price success?

[caley100]

Feckin hell! Abramovich certainly puts his money where his heart is eh?

Check this

[Ronaldo]

I hope he's got a receipt.....

[Council Juice]

Well it's his money and he's got plenty of it to squander.

I'd be slightly worried about crazy debt like that if I was a chelsea fan though.

[CaleyD]

All depends on how the holding company is structured and who owns what with it.

If Chelsea have no connection with the company other than the fact they have a shareholding in the club then the debt won't come back to haunt the club. If Abramovich was to call in the loan then it would be holding company liable to pay, not the club.

Even if the holding company were to go bust, the worst that would happen is the shares would be sold to the highest bidder.

You'd really need some understanding of whether or not the club own/control/are liable for any of the Holding Companies debts through any other means to ascertain if any risk exists beyond that of being able to survive at current levels if the money dried up.

[Gabby]

There are 2 reasons for doing this.

Firstly he doesn't really want the money back but he doesn't want it sitting as an obvious liabiltiy on the Chelsea books.

Secondly, it makes Chelsea's financial situation look better than it is which achieves 2 things:

1. At some stage the Champions League may not,(as the UEFA keep saying, albeit not convincingly) allow teams that are technically insolvent to participate.

2. Increases the sale price if he ever wanted to sell. He would never get rid of it if someone had to pay him 700 odd million pounds just to clear the debt. The economics just don't work given how small stamford bridge is and also given that it has no scope to increase its capacity