The Takeover That Led to Chelsea's Club World Cup Glory
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 15 July 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to It Was What It Was, the football history podcast. After Chelsea's Club World Cup win at the weekend, Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper are joined by author Nick Purewal, who discusses his book Sanctioned: The Inside Story of the Sale of Chelsea FC about the sanctioning of Roman Abramovich and the sale of Chelsea FC.
Here we give a unique insight into the unprecedented chaos surrounding Chelsea during their 2022 sale, including behind-the-scenes details of Abramovich's involvement in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, a near-poisoning event, and the tumultuous sale process of the club that led to current owner Todd Boehly buying the club.
00:00 Introduction
04:51 Abramovich's Role and the War's Impact
07:35 The Rapid Downfall and Sanctions
16:04 Abramovich's Involvement in Peace Talks
19:28 The Poisoning Incident
26:10 Skepticism and Vindication
29:52 Legal Confusion and Government Challenges
31:47 Chelsea's Struggles Under Sanctions
35:23 The High-Stakes Sale Process
38:48 The Bidding War Heats Up
44:26 Jim Ratcliffe's Last-Minute Bid
50:10 The Aftermath and Reflections
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There is an old expression from the Soviet Union. |
| 0:09.5 | Don't complain about being poor or about being in prison, he says. |
| 0:13.0 | We have 50 good years and now something else. |
| 0:17.5 | Welcome to It Was What It Was, the Football History Podcasts. |
| 0:20.0 | I'm Jonathan Wilson. |
| 0:21.5 | I'm with Bob Draper. We're joined today by Nick Puerweil, the Football History Podcasts. I'm Jonathan Wilson and with Rob Draper. |
| 0:26.2 | We're joined today by Nick Puerwell, whose voice you just heard reading out a quote from Roman Abramwich, taped from his brilliant new book, Sanctioned about the sanctioning of Roman |
| 0:31.1 | Abramwich and the sale of Chelsea. And I think this really is, it's one of those events that |
| 0:36.8 | it's happened so recently. |
| 0:39.2 | It's very hard to put into context. That's what we're going to try to do today. |
| 0:42.9 | Loads of detail from Nick from his, from his book, which is incredibly well sourced. |
| 0:46.7 | So Nick, thank you very much for joining us. Welcome to It Was What It Was. |
| 0:50.4 | Thanks for having me. |
| 0:51.7 | Nick, I really enjoyed the book. And there were so many great details in there. |
| 0:56.8 | And the one I think I enjoyed the most was amongst the hundreds of incredible details, |
| 1:02.8 | was the moment where Cesar Asper le Guetta is trying to organise a whip around to get a private jet to fly up to Middlesbrough. |
| 1:10.1 | And it turns like they can't do it because |
| 1:12.0 | that would be breaking the rules. But I just love the idea of like, we've all been in the pub football team going, right, it's 20 pounds to your subs and the net and Aspie going around. So yeah, it's 20 grand for your private jet. Mason's only put in 10 because he's, he's not got to change at a moment. so can you put in 30. |
| 1:27.0 | Yeah, it was just like, |
| 1:28.5 | it really laid bare how chaotic Chelsea was in that period. |
| 1:33.4 | Like Jonathan said, I think what is remarkable is that these events are really astonishing, |
| 1:38.2 | but because they happen so recently, we haven't properly appreciated how unprecedented they |
... |
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