Sanctioned

The Inside Story of the Sale of Chelsea FC

Nick Purewal

$44.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Biteback Publishing
01 December 2025

Sports teams & clubs; Football (Soccer, Association football)

The sale of Chelsea Football Club in 2022 was one of the highest-profile and

most controversial sports transactions of all time. In the shadow of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, what unfolded after Roman Abramovich was forced to put his beloved club up for sale would change English football forever. Under the threat of bankruptcy and ruin, Chelsea pulled off a complex transaction in three tense and troubling months

a quarter of the time many analysts would normally set aside for such a deal. Sanctioned is the definitive account of this unique period.

Through unprecedented access to Abramovich himself and key figures from Chelsea's new ownership, as well as further interviews with a star-studded footballing cast, Nick Purewal unfolds a wide-ranging tale of political sanctions, hushed negotiations and Cold War-style geopolitics, all told in vivid, propulsive prose against a backdrop of war on the edge of Europe.

From the club's owners to its staff, players and supporters, via UK government intervention, dramatic peace talks and even a foul-play poisoning episode, Sanctioned chronicles ninety-five extraordinary days in English football.

By: Nick Purewal
Imprint: Biteback Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781785909894
ISBN 10: 1785909894
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 December 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Nick Purewal is a freelance reporter and writer with twenty years' experience in news and sports journalism. Nick reported on the entirety of the Chelsea sale in his role as Chelsea correspondent at the Press Association, breaking the world exclusive that Roman Abramovich was working to help the early peace process between Russia and Ukraine and later the shock news that key bidders the Ricketts family had pulled out of the race to buy the club. Beginning his career at the Grimsby Telegraph, Nick has also worked for the Newcastle Chronicle, the Gloucester Citizen and the Evening Standard and now freelances for a variety of national outlets in addition to ghostwriting books and working on other long-form projects.

Reviews for Sanctioned: The Inside Story of the Sale of Chelsea FC

""Nick Purewal knows Chelsea inside out. So he's perfectly placed to tell the inside story of the most extraordinary period in the history of Chelsea - and of English football. He's even got Roman Abramovich to talk."" Henry Winter ""A story the whole of football has been waiting to read. Football meets geopolitics in an epic tale of money and power."" Paul Hayward, The Observer