Roman Abramovich , the Putin-linked Russian oligarch, is selling his beloved soccer team, Chelsea FC.- Reports in Turkish media suggest he will replace it by buying Turkish Super Lig side Goztepe.
Roman Abramovich, the billionaire oligarch sanctioned by the UK and EU, is on the brink of announcing a deal to buy Goztepe SK, a soccer team playing in the country's elite Super Lig — at least according to reports in the Turkish media.
The proposed deal, however, seems to be a fabrication, with the club denying that Abramovich has made an approach, and rumors of any sale seemingly stemming from a joke made by a British journalist in a comment piece.
"Abramovich did not reach out and talk to anyone to take over the club. No such thing," Talat Papatya, Goztepe's deputy chairman, told Turkish news agency DHA this week after a swell of reports about a possible sale.
Abramovich, who became a billionaire after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was sanctioned in the weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine over his close ties to President Vladimir Putin.
Prior to being sanctioned, Abramovich said he would sell Chelsea, the London soccer team he purchased in 2003, becoming one of the first superrich overseas soccer club owners in Europe.
It was initially thought after the announcement of the Abramovich sanctions, which included freezing his UK assets, that he would not be able to sell Chelsea, but the UK government has since granted a special license allowing the sale to go ahead. No buyer has yet been decided.
Rumors about Turkish side Goztepe
There was no suggestion that Abramovich was even considering buying a new soccer team after Chelsea until a comment piece in British newspaper The Daily Telegraph in mid-March.
The piece by senior
Abramovich's private jet has been spotted in Turkey, where he was seen attending Russia-Ukraine peace talks, while two of his superyachts docked in the country for several weeks.
"Turkey seems a safeish haven for him and his travelling luxury circus, he could do worse than the Super Lig to start again as a football club owner," Gibbs wrote.
"All that remains is choosing the right club to take over. Step forward Goztepe, from Turkey's third-biggest city Izmir," Gibbs wrote, before drawing parallels between the two clubs.
"As with Chelsea in 2003, their last league title was in the 1950s although the King's Road may not be quite matched by Plevne Boulevard."
Gibbs gave no information to suggest that Abramovich wanted to buy Goztepe. Days after the story was published, he also tweeted that his suggestion should not be taken seriously.
—Thom Gibbs (@thomgibbs) March 21, 2022
However, it appears the joke was somewhat lost in translation, with several Turkish media outlets reporting in the days after the piece was published that Abramovich was in talks with Goztepe and its current owner Mehmet Sepil over a possible sale. Some even cited The Telegraph's report.
A number of British outlets then picked up the story, citing a March 23 report from the Turkish site Fanatik about the prospective sale.
News of Abramovich's possible purchase of Goztepe then went quiet for around two weeks, before Russia's state-run news agency Tass reported Tuesday that Haberler, a Turkish news site, said that a sale had been completed and would be announced Friday.
That report led to the denial by Goztepe's deputy chairman of any talks, which seemed to kill any suggestion that Abramovich was truly interested in the team.