Roman Abramovich v Dai Yongge

[hobbitx007]

After the disappointing demise of Reading FC Women's team and the protracted sale of the club that seems to get hidden behind a cloak of continual "she'll be right" announcements I am getting quite concerned that the rest of the club will follow the same path into oblivion similar to what happened with Bury FC. An owner who refuses to sell no matter what offer is forthcoming leaving a club forced into administration and ultimate liquidation.
It made me wonder how Roman Abramovich was forced into the sale of Chelsea a few years ago.

In this article https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukrai ... dd88db9498 it states "Sanctions and travel restrictions were placed on Abramovich, his assets were frozen, and Chelsea was allowed to operate only under the terms of a government-issued license".

I realise that Dai is not involved in country invasions but it shows that the government has the power to intervene in cases where football club owners are deemed to contravene regulations.
Since the EFL are clearly not going to lift a finger is it a possibility to have our supportive local MPs (assuming they keep their jobs) to lobby for a similar government intervention.
Even the threat of a freeze on Dai Yongge UK assets may be enough to finally force him into accepting an offer to sell the club.

[From Despair To Where?]

Not sure there's any grounds for government intervention under current regulations. I mean, his main assets have already been frozen in China.

[Crusader Royal]

Not sure there's any grounds for government intervention under current regulations. I mean, his main assets have already been frozen in China.

Don’t think the Abrahamovic situation was even slightly comparable.
All his assets were frozen IIRC and Chelsea just happened to be one of them. There were conditions attached which allowed the club to keep functioning as allowing them to cease playing would have been extremely popular with many but probably not very fair.
It was nothing to do with how the club was run.

[traff]

I think you are trying to compare Crab apples with Asian pears.

[Snowflake Royal]

There's certainly no grounds or legal basis for FL intervention.

[Mr Angry]

After the disappointing demise of Reading FC Women's team and the protracted sale of the club that seems to get hidden behind a cloak of continual "she'll be right" announcements I am getting quite concerned that the rest of the club will follow the same path into oblivion similar to what happened with Bury FC. An owner who refuses to sell no matter what offer is forthcoming leaving a club forced into administration and ultimate liquidation.
It made me wonder how Roman Abramovich was forced into the sale of Chelsea a few years ago.

In this article https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukrai ... dd88db9498 it states "Sanctions and travel restrictions were placed on Abramovich, his assets were frozen, and Chelsea was allowed to operate only under the terms of a government-issued license".

I realise that Dai is not involved in country invasions but it shows that the government has the power to intervene in cases where football club owners are deemed to contravene regulations.
Since the EFL are clearly not going to lift a finger is it a possibility to have our supportive local MPs (assuming they keep their jobs) to lobby for a similar government intervention.
Even the threat of a freeze on Dai Yongge UK assets may be enough to finally force him into accepting an offer to sell the club.

The 2 circumstances are so different as to not be on the same page.

Russia were under Government and International sanctions, as were certain named individuals, including the then owner of Chelsea. To have allowed ANY money to go into Chelsea - and therefore their owner - would be a breach of both National and International law. No such sanctions exist against either China nor Dai Yonnge personally. Therefore, the Government wasn't "intervening where football club owners are deemed to contravene regulations" because the ownership of Chelsea was merely collateral damage and not the cause of sanctions.

(Indeed, there was a real fear that Chelsea FC would be shut down until its sale had gone through, and it was only the special Government licence that allowed them to continue as a Football club, though with only the absolute minimm amount of money allowed into the club to keep them going).

Additionally, before the dissolution of Parliament, a Bill was going through that had cross Party support; this would have created an independent regulator which would have been given the powers needed to save football clubs from errant owners. As Labour (who are likely to form the next Government) was supportive of this measure, there is every hope that the Bill - or something similar - will be re-introduced to the House, but it isn't likely to be high on the list of priorities for the new Government.

Finally, the UK Government can only freeze the UK assets of any individual in extreme and highly specific circumstances; I would suggest that "being unwilling to sell a football team at a price it's fans want him to sell to anyone at" would not make a compelling enough reason for such a draconian act.