Premier League vow to never allow another Roman Abramovich after Russian’s Chelsea exit

Richard Masters has said that the owners and directors test must be tight enough up to prevent another Roman Abramovich from arriving in the Premier League. The Premier League chief executive also revealed that there were genuine concerns that Todd Boehly’s takeover might not go through in time to prevent Chelsea from going bust.

As a close associate of Vladimir Putin, Abramovich was banned from running the club in March and the subsequent takeover was finally concluded just days before a special licence ran out on May 31.

Masters said: “You’re in unique circumstances, nothing like this has happened before. There was obviously a genuine concern the sale wouldn’t take place in the timeframe that was available.

“A lot of people worked extremely hard on it at the club’s end, government’s end and Premier League’s end to make sure things were running as smoothly as possible.

“All I can say is we’re very pleased that it happened, obviously.” There was no such thing as an owners and directors test when Abramovich took over, nor any need for ongoing assessment.

But Masters hinted that he might well have fallen foul of the planned new regulations even before the government decreed he was so closely allied with Putin.

“Ultimately, there wasn’t an owners and directors test when Abramovich took ownership of Chelsea, and so I suppose the answer to the question is had there been that in place what would have happened and what safeguards we need to build in for the future,” he said.

“It’s going to change and part of that actually is probably going to be the strengthening of the annual test.”

The Premier League also sought to dismiss suggestions that the Carabao Cup will be axed with extra midweek fixtures to enter the schedule because of the Champions League reforms.

Masters said: “I think the biggest impact of the UEFA reforms are on the League Cup because of the loss of midweeks, so we need to find a solution to that.

“If you talk to Premier League clubs, they want the League Cup to remain, they want it to remain part of the competition, the Wembley slot, the European place. That’s one of the things we’ve got to discuss and that’s got to happen now.”