Chelsea have developed a reputation as one the game's glamour clubs and Stamford Bridge has become home to some of football's biggest names over the years. The Blues, founded in 1905, were committed to playing attractive football that matched the stylish surrounds of their West London setting, but silverware initially proved elusive.
A First Division championship in 1955 stood alone in the trophy cabinet until a golden period in the 1960s and 1970s. The League Cup, FA Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup were hoisted in a six-year spell before the dawning of the FA Premier League coincided with another successful era. A losing FA Cup final appearance in 1994 was followed by victory three years later and 1998 alone saw three more trophies - the League Cup, European Cup Winners' Cup and European Super Cup. The FA Cup was won again in 2000 and was followed in 2005 with the Barclays Premiership title, meaning the Blues are now associated with both style and success.
PREMIER LEAGUE PERFORMANCE
Chelsea have become one of the FA Premier League's success stories. The London club have flourished since the competition's inception in 1992 and former chairman Ken Bates oversaw a radical redevelopment of their plush Stamford Bridge base. Mid-table mediocrity was the order of the day before Ruud Gullit's appointment as Chelsea boss in 1996 ushered in a new era. The flamboyant Dutchman helped attract a number of world-class players to Stamford Bridge with Roberto Di Matteo and Gianfranco Zola soon becoming heroes in the royal blue jersey. Chelsea's attractive brand of football earned them sixth place in the Premiership in 1997 and FA Cup glory confirmed their improvement.
When Gullit departed in 1998, Gianluca Vialli achieved a fourth-place finish and European Cup Winners' Cup and League Cup wins. The big names continued to arrive, including World Cup winners Marcel Desailly and Didier Deschamps. A third FA Cup triumph was secured in 2000 before Vialli made way for Claudio Ranieri, who soon moulded a competitive side, securing four more top-six placings until his departure in May 2004. A fresh chapter in the club's history was opened with the arrival of new owner Roman Abramovich in summer 2003 as he financed the arrivals of several big-name signings, including Damien Duff, Didier Drogba, Arjen Robben and Joe Cole.
Champions League-winning coach Jose Mourinho was added to the Chelsea staff in June 2004 and collected his first piece of silverware in February 2005 with victory over Liverpool in the Carling Cup final. And the club's first Premiership title was clinched on April 30, 2005, with three games of the season remaining, to cap an astonishing debut campaign for Mourinho. The following season, Chelsea became only the second club to retain the Premiership crown when they beat nearest rivals Manchester United on April 29, almost a year to the day after their first triumph. In May 2006, Mourinho bolstered an already formidable squad with the club-record signing of AC Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko.
CLUB HONOURS
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS1954-55, 2004-05, 2005-06
CHARITY/COMMUNITY SHIELD WINNERS1955, 2000, 2005
F.A. CUP WINNERS1970, 1997, 2000
LEAGUE CUP WINNERS1965, 1998, 2005
What is CPO?
Many Chelsea fans will remember a time during the 1980s and early 90s when the freehold of Stamford Bridge was not owned by the club, and there was the continual threat from property developers to evict Chelsea Football Club from our ancestral home.
Luckily, in 1993 the developers went into receivership and the club immediately acquired the freehold. To ensure that such a battle with property developers would never happen again, CPO was formed and granted an option to purchase the freehold, and so set about raising the money by selling shares in the company at £100 each.
In December 1997 the then Chelsea Village (now Chelsea Football Club Ltd) reorganised its finance and as part of that arrangement, Chelsea Village provided CPO with a non-recourse loan in excess of £10 million to complete the purchase of the freehold. CPO granted Chelsea a 199-year lease. As further protection, CPO owns the name Chelsea Football Club.
The main objective of the company is to raise money to repay the loan and broaden the ownership of the ground to all interested stakeholders through the sale of shares. The company was set up without the objective of making a profit or issuing dividends.
In addition to the shares, CPO creates a number of events throughout the year focused on paying tribute to great players or events which have shaped the club's history. They have included tributes to Kerry Dixon, Bobby Tambling and Gianluca Vialli.
Roman AbramovichRoman Arkadyevich Abramovich born on 24 October 1966 in Saratov, Russian SFSR, USSR is a Russian Jewish billionaire and the main owner of private investment company Millhouse LLC. According to Forbes magazine, as of 5 March 2008, he has had a net worth of US$23.5 billion. Due to the worldwide financial crisis of 2008, his wealth had declined to $3 billion.
[2] In 2008 Forbes magazine ranked him as the fifteenth richest person in the world. He was also considered to be the second richest person currently living within the United Kingdom.
[3] In 2003, Abramovich was named Person of the Year by Expert, a Russian business magazine. He shared this title with Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He is known outside Russia as the owner of Chelsea Football Club, an English Premier League football team, and for his wider involvement in European football.
In June 2003, he became the owner of the companies that control Chelsea Football Club in the United Kingdom.
The club also embarked on an ambitious programme of commercial development, with the aim of making it a worldwide brand, and announced plans to build a new state-of-the-art training complex in Cobham, Surrey.[35] Chelsea finished their first season after the takeover in second place in the Premiership, from fourth the previous year, and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. A new manager, José Mourinho, was recruited, and Chelsea ended the following season as league champions. In the five years since the takeover the club have won five major trophies; the Premier League and League Cup twice each and the FA Cup. This five trophy haul during the 2003-2008 period is higher than any other English club alongside Manchester United who have also secured five; the Premier league twice, the European Champions League, the FA Cup and the League Cup.
It is argued that Abramovich's involvement with Chelsea has distorted the football transfer market throughout Europe,[36] as his wealth often allows the club to purchase players virtually at will although that has changed in recent years. He did however sanction the transfer of Andriy Shevchenko for a then British record transfer fee of around £30 million.
The spending has, to some extent, seen wealth re-distributed throughout the game, with the combined fee of £12.5 million paid to West Ham United for Glen Johnson and Joe Cole helping to avert administration.[37] In the year ending June 2005, Chelsea posted record losses of £140 million and the club is not expected to record a trading profit before 2010, though this did decrease to reported losses of £80.2 million year ending June 2006.[38]
In a December 2006 interview Abramovich stated that he expected Chelsea's transfer spending to fall in years to come,[39] although he subsequently seemed to move away from this position.[40] He is also present at almost every game Chelsea play and shows visible emotion during matches, a sign taken by supporters to indicate a love for the sport, and usually visits the players in the dressing room following each match, although this stopped for a time in early 2007 as rumours of a feud between Abramovich and Chelsea manager José Mourinho appeared in the press which was due to various arguments between the two men regarding the appearances of certain players, notably Andriy Shevchenko.
[41] In the early hours of 20 September 2007, José Mourinho announced his exit as Chelsea manager by mutual consent with the club following a meeting with the board.[42] Former Israel coach and Chelsea's director of football, Avram Grant, was named as his replacement.
[43] Ever since Grant had joined Chelsea (in the summer of 2007) there had been friction between him and Mourinho. Mourinho reportedly told Grant not to interfere in team affairs but with Abramovich's backing, Grant's profile at the club rose after he was made a member of the board. This event apparently did not go down well with Mourinho and may have contributed to his surprise exit
.[44] On 24 May Avram Grant was sacked as manager by Abramovich.[45] On 11 June 2008, it was announced that Luiz Felipe Scolari would be taking over as manager on 1 July 2008. Scolari was sacked as Chelsea manager on 9 February 2009.[46] As of May 2008, Abramovich has spent approximately £600 million on the club since arriving in 2003.
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