June 13 – Roman Abramovich is reportedly situating himself to take a 55% controlling stake in RCD Mallorca. Mallorca currently plays in the Spanish Segunda División, narrowly avoiding relegation at the end of the 2013/2014 season. The club had dropped for the top division the year before.
Reports emerged that Abramovich was waiting to see whether the side would be relegated or not before proceeding with negotiations. Despite achieving this feat, no more has since been publicised about any potential deal.
Abramovich could be a settling influence on the club, which has suffered from financial hardship and shareholder power struggles in recent years.
In 2012 Mallorca was relegated from the Primera División after having just come out of administration. Their reduced opportunity to generate revenue has caused the club to operate on a very tight budget, which even Rafael Nadal, who became a shareholder in 2010, could do little to aid.
For further troubles, in 2013 a power struggle occurred for majority shareholding, leading to resignations that did not serve to help the club’s situation.
Abramovich has had interest in European clubs other than Chelsea previously, and does at present too. When he owned Russian oil company Sibneft, the company had a sponsorship deal with Russian team CSKA Moscow.
At the moment Abramovich’s company Truphone, a global mobile network, is Vitesse Arnhem’s – who play in the Dutch Eredivisie – official shirt sponsor. Vitesse have benefited from regular loan agreements with Chelsea, most recently Tomas Kalas was on loan at Vitesse from 2011-2013.
One benefit Chelsea may receive through a deal with Mallorca is gaining access to the talented Spanish youngsters of their prestigious youth system.
UEFA rules prevent one person owning more than one team participating in UEFA competitions, which stopped Abramovich from having an equity interest is CSKA Moscow. After an UEFA investigation, Abramovich was cleared of having a conflict of interests.
As the UEFA rulings currently stand, Abramovich’s reported desire to acquire a stake in RCD Mallorca could become problematic if his investment turned out to be a successful one for the team.
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