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Billionaire from Russia and owner of London's Chelsea Roman Abramovich is linked with the Spanish football club Deportivo La Coruna.
Shaken by the crisis, La Coruna club is seeking new investors and it is believed that for this purpose, Deportivo's president Augusto Cesar Lendoiro traveled to London this week. He also found time to meet with Barcelona's president Joan Laporta and Birmingham's executives.
With Laporta, it is reported that Lendoiro discussed the possible acquisition of Juan Roman Riquelme, and with Birmingham they discussed the sale of Walter Pandiani, who belongs to Deportivo but is currently on loan to the English club. However, it is said that Lendoiro's main goal was to meet with potential investors for Deportivo.
Among the potential investors mentioned are MSI (a global sports investment company that owns Corinthians) and Roman Abramovich. It is said that Abramovich has close ties with MSI, but both parties always deny it officially.
Abramovich, who is also associated with Moscow's CSKA, could acquire part of Deportivo's shares, but some sources in Russia and Spain claim that the Russian will buy the whole club.
Lendoiro himself confirmed that he had met with investors in London: "We talked about football, new markets, new investors. But I don't intend to discuss details with the media."
It should be noted that according to UEFA regulations, two clubs belonging to the same owner cannot participate in the same UEFA competition (UEFA Cup, Champions League, or Intertoto Cup), which had already raised concerns about CSKA's potential participation in this year's Champions League.
