Abramovich bids for new club

Roman Abramovich was today set to extend his sporting empire by buying a Canadian ice hockey club.

The billionaire Chelsea owner is reported to be in negotiations with senior figures at National Hockey League side Vancouver Canucks.

The move follows a suggestion by the Russian sports minister that instead of buying football clubs Abramovich should take on an NHL franchise and make it Russia's representative.

Vyacheslav Fetisiov, a former NHL player himself, said: "It wouldn't hurt to have our own, wholly Russian team in the National Hockey League. It would stir up more interest."

Abramovich already owns Avangard Omsk who he has helped transform into one of the top teams in Russian ice hockey.

The purchase of the Canucks would be seen as another signal that the 36-year-old is preparing to leave his homeland, possibly for a new life in Britain.

The Evening Standard revealed yesterday that Abramovich has sold his last major industrial stake in Russia for £1.8billion, boosting his total wealth to a staggering £8.2bn.

The sale of his 50 per cent stake in Russia's biggest aluminium company, RusAl, follows the disposal of shares in airline Aeroflot and oil company Sibneft.

Business experts now believe he is now conducting a firesale of his Russian assets as a precursor to him making Britain - where he already owns several properties - his permanent home.

They also suggest he could be moving his money because of fears of a government-led clampdown on the oligarchs who profited hugely in the privatisation deals of the 1990s. "He is a boy who wants to enjoy himself. He's got all his money, and now he has decided to buy a lot of toys," said Sergei Markov, a Moscow-based political analyst.

But not everyone is impressed by the Abramovich phenomenon. UEFA chief excutive Gerhard Aigner has attacked the way he has stifled the growth of homegrown players by spending millions on a "world select team" at Chelsea.

Aigner said: "Somebody can buy a team and suddenly they can be a candidate to win the Champions League. I don't think that football should be about that. We now have a world select team and nobody can do anything.

"We must have a rule where the clubs have to field players they have educated themselves. At the moment potentially successful youngsters are bought to sit on the bench or not play at all.

" Remember the teams of Moenchengladbach, Malmo, Ipswich and others who emerged because they had a good school and others loved to play for them?

"That has been lost and it is severely damaging for football in the long run."

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