Roman Abramovich's £140m deal for Chelsea was done and dusted in 20 minutes

By Jeremy Wilson The Dorchester hotel in central London was home to Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill during periods of the Second World War, while The Beatles, Elizabeth Taylor and Charlton Heston are among the celebrities to have stayed there since. Yet it is still debatable whether it has hosted a meeting with more ongoing significance for a major strand of everyday English culture than the summit between Roman Abramovich and Ken Bates in 2003 that resulted in Chelsea falling under the control of a billionaire Russian oligarch. Making himself at home: Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich in the stands at Stamford Bridge Given the magnitude of the deal and the sums of money involved, what remains most striking about the Abramovich takeover was the speed and ease with which events unfolded. Indeed, the time between... [read full story]