Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich became the subject of debate amongst fans in recent months, with some believing that the Blues owner had lost interest in the club.
Abramovich had his UK Visa revoked and as a result, has not been the ever present figure at Stamford Bridge that he had been since the start of his reign, this is probably where the concerns began.
However, since it emerged yesterday that Abramovich had actually pumped £250 million of his own money into the club last year, the picture started to become clearer.
As reported by The Independent today, Abramovich has commissioned a new anti-Semitism art project at Stamford Bridge, which is a 12-metre mural that will pay tribute to three Jewish footballers sent to Nazi concentration camps in World War Two.
As in the report, Chelsea Chairman Bruce Buck has been speaking on the subject of the new mural and also touches upon Abramovich’s involvement in the club, and he seems to put to bed any further doubts.
He said:
“As far as we’re concerned on a day-to-day basis Mr Abramovich is even more supportive than ever, in all aspects of the club.
“Mr Abramovich is very interested in art, and he had the idea to raise awareness through this project, for people to focus on the problem.
“So the mural has been developed from that idea, and of course it is being donated by Mr Abramovich. We’ve always looked at our efforts here as focusing on awareness, and education and remembrance, keeping in mind that history sometimes repeats itself.
“And with the Holocaust, we’ve got to make sure that it is remembered with the hope that something like that doesn’t happen again.
“Recent incidents of discrimination in sport and other areas make this all the more important. Racism and discrimination is not just a football problem, a societal problem that is reflected in football stadia.”
“This piece of art has a football theme and hopefully it will resonate with our fans.
“Mr Abramovich cares deeply about not just anti-Semitism but all forms of discrimination. We’ve focused on anti-Semitism as a special project even though we continue projects to fight all kinds of discrimination.
“But there hadn’t been anything like this as a project and that’s why we developed it.”
