Roman Abramovich ‘secretly funded’ Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem while owning Chelsea

Roman Abramovich secretly bankrolled Vitesse Arnhem and funded a 2010 buyout of the Dutch team while he owned Chelsea, despite repeated denials by both clubs at the time.

Vitesse enjoyed a close relationship with Chelsea, with young Blues including Mason Mount given the chance to develop in the Eredevisie while on loan in the Netherlands.

Leaked files now reveal €117m of loans to Vitesse originated from Abramovich, according to an investigation by The Guardian.

The papers, known as the Oligarch files, originate from Cyprus-based offshore financial services company MeritServus, and “strongly suggest” that Abramovich provided significant funding to the club via a complex web of offshore entities.

The chief beneficiaries were the Georgian former footballer Merab Jordania, who bought Vitesse in 2010 and denied Abramovich’s involvement at the time, and the Russian businessman Alexander Chigirinsky, who took over the club from Jordania in 2013.

The Dutch FA twice investigated the matter, most notably in 2014 after Jordania claimed publicly that Vitesse’s European ambitions had been capped because “London didn’t want that”, but could not find conclusive evidence of links between Abramovich and the club.

Uefa rules prohibit two clubs in the same European competition from being owned or run by the same individual or organisation.

Jordania admitted to The Guardian that Abramovich lent him money but insisted it was not with the intention of funding Vitesse. “It was, let’s say, personal debt, my personal debt to Abramovich and Chigirinsky.”

Vitesse, who are now owned by American businessman Coley Parry, have denied any knowledge of payments by Abramovich, as has the former Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck.

Abramovich was forced to sell Chelsea last year due to his ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin.