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| Abramovich: Chelsea has cost him £1 billion |
New finanacial figures for Chelsea's holding company reveal that Abramovich’s total loans to underwrite the football club are rapidly closing in on £1 billion!
The accounts show that the Russian oligarch had already bankrolled the club to the tune of £740 million by the end of the 2009-10 season BEFORE investing a further £73 million on the double purchase of Fernando Torres and David Luiz in January.
The ever-increasing cost of his Chelsea adventure comes at an expensive time for the billionaire.
He has taken delivery of a £600 million super-yacht, Eclipse, and pledged to help fund the £1.25 billion makeover of Moscow's Gorky Park, including a modern art gallery for Ms Zhukova.
He also paid £25 million for a house in Chelsea's Cheyne Walk, his 11th property. The growing losses are mostly due to players' wages, which rose another £19.5 million, and transfer deals.
Fans have also had to pay spiralling ticket prices, with the best seats at Stamford Bridge costing £75. The cost of merchandise has also soared, with a club shirt costing £47.99.
Abramovich is thought to be the ninth richest person in Russia and the 53rd richest in the world, according to the 2011 Forbes list.
His decision to pay huge wages has created some of London's richest men, including Frank Lampard on £120,000 a week and John Terry on £150,000.
Figures for Chelsea's holding company show that the club was £77.8 million in the red last year - making a mockery of the former chief executive Peter Kenyon's prediction that Chelsea would break even by 2010!
Abramovich won't be able to recoup his losses by selling a car. His taste in vehicles is strangely modest with the most luxurious of his seven listed being a Mercedes S500L!
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