Comments on Hansjorg Wyss show what type of new owner Chelsea would get if Roman Abramovich left

Chelsea are said to be for sale amid Roman Abramovich’s uneasy situation in the UK.

Amid Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine, there have been a number of calls for Abramovich, who has known connections to Vladimir Putin, to be sanctioned.

There have already been multiple calls for his UK assets to be frozen, and that includes Chelsea.

And amid those calls, it has emerged the Blues may well be for sale, with Blick reporting Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss has been offered the chance to buy the club.

It’s reported Wyss and other investors could come together to buy the club, with enquiries being made.

But what can Chelsea expect if Wyss takes control of the football club?

At 85 years of age, it’s unclear what kind of control Wyss would have, but the good news is that he comes with a good review.

Wyss made his big money with Synthes USA, taking over in 1977 and eventually selling to Johnson and Johnson in 2012 for cash and stocks worth $19.7 billion.

A manager assigned to a specific project in that company was later quoted by the Washington Examiner as saying: “For somebody who is at his level and his level of success, I would say he [Wyss] has a surprising amount of contact with what’s going on”.

He is said to have probed intensely on projects during his time at Synthes, and that would be good news for Chelsea, who are not likely to want a silent investor who cares little about the performance of his football club.

Though, by the same token, they are not likely to want someone who probes too much into the footballing side of things.

Since 1998, Wyss has been heavily involved in philanthropy, running the Wyss Foundation out of Washington, and the foundation funds conservation, environmental journalism, education, museums and progressive political advocacy.

Between 2004 and 2008, he is estimated to have personally donated $27million to charities, and the assets of his charitable donations are estimated to be worth $billion

Wyss may be worth around $8billion less than Abramovich, but such philanthropy will be more welcome in the UK than Chelsea’s current owner given the current climate and his close ties to Putin.