Izuchukwu Okosi
Property tycoon and lifelong Chelsea fan Nick Candy has sensationally revealed that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich still has a big say as regards who buys the club despite being sanctioned by the British government.
Billionaire businessman, Candy has tabled a £2 billion-plus to buy the west London club who are dire straits due to Abramovich being a close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The UK government has ruled that the Russian oligarch will not get a single penny from the sale of the club but Candy has shocked those who have no clue about decisions being taken behind closed doors by stating that Abramovich will decide who buys his club despite the sanctions imposed on him.
Speaking to SunSport, Candy said: “Although it’s a sanctioned club, Roman gets the decision on where it goes.
“People might not like that, but it’s his club still – it’s sanctioned – but it’s his club.”
He added: “All I care about is first of all, whoever ends up with the club has got to put the fans front and centre and the fan-led review needs to be adopted in its best principle and that Chelsea has a chance to be the golden standard of that.
“Number two is I think that football clubs owned just by one person like the Glazers is a bad model, and not just for the fans, but for the club.
“If you can have the best investor from Africa, India, America, Asia as your cornerstone partners and they use the fans in that part of the world to make money for the club back at home, fantastic!
“And why can’t we have offshoots of the club in South Korea or Los Angeles or wherever it is.
Candy points to the Manchester City model and describes the administrative structure of City as ideal for the running of a football club.
“And also Manchester City have probably done the best job in the planet of the feeder clubs.
“And we’ve got to do that as well. That’s because they run it properly, they’re amazing,” Candy stressed.
The deadline for submission of interests from possible buyers was 9pm on Friday 18 March.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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