The Evening Standard are today reporting an interesting story about the now-completed takeover of Chelsea.
The club have apparently informed HMRC (the UK’s government’s tax body) and the Football Association about “an issue” with the club’s tax affairs.
This follows the revelation last month that new owner Todd Boehly had held back £100m from of his multibillion purchase to pay off any liabilities outstanding from the Roman Abramovich era. It seems like we might now know why.
The tangled web of loans and payments constructed by Abramovich was always likely to lead to a few legacy issues for any new owners, especially given the hurried way the sale was conducted.
The FA are “monitoring the situation” (which sounds like transfer talk to us), while HMRC declined to comment.
We don’t expect this to amount to much, but it’s a reminder that just because the takeover is completed, doesn’t mean there aren’t more issues to come.
