Roman Abramovich may not be the only senior Chelsea figure leaving in the near future with two long-serving directors set to depart when the new ownership takes over.
The Russian oligarch confirmed on Wednesday that he is looking for a buyer for the Premier League team – which he has owned since 2003 – and is ready to write off the £1.5billion he has loaned to the London club.
Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss revealed this week that he had been approached by Abramovich to buy the club and is believed to have joined US tycoon Todd Boehly in a consortium readying a huge offer.
Although Abramovich has almost no involvement in the day-to-day running of the club, a takeover will not simply see a like-for-like swap of billionaires controlling things at Stamford Bridge and the existing infrastructure remaining the same.
Club chairman Bruce Buck and director Marina Granovskaia have been key to the running of Chelsea – but they could also leave when Abramovich sells the club in what will have a much bigger impact than the exit of the owner himself.
According to The Guardian, the two board members – who have huge power and control at the club – would be very unlikely to stay after a takeover and are expected to leave.
Buck, a season ticket holder since the early 1990s, has been a director of Chelsea since Abramovich bought the club 19 years ago and took over as chairman the following campaign, overseeing the running of the club and representing them in various arenas.
Granovskaia has been Abramovich’s de facto ‘chief of staff’ across many of his business interests for the past two decades and took up a more prominent role at the club from 2013 onwards, when she joined the board.
Despite a relative lack of football experience, Granovskaia – who is a dual Russian and Canadian national – has become a leading director in European football.
She has been the one in charge of Chelsea’s impressive approach to player transactions in recent years and is highly respected by the rest of the Premier League.
Losing both Buck and Granovskaia would leave a major vacuum at Chelsea and strip out years of knowledge and experience of running the club, with Abramovich not the only big shoes the new owners would need to fill.
