Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen interested in buying Chelsea from Abramovich

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is interested in purchasing London’s football club Chelsea from Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, the British daily The Sun reports.

Allen, 65, has already held a meeting with football agent Pini Zahavi in New York in September to discuss the possibility of such a deal. Zahavi is Abramovich’s close friend. Allen owns the clubs Seattle Seahawks (National Football League, American football), Portland (National Basketball Association) and Seattle Sounders (United Football League).

According to earlier reports Abramovich received a proposal for selling Chelsea from British businessman Jim Ratcliffe, whose wealth is estimated at 21.05 billion pounds ($28.5 billion). Ratcliffe would like to have Chelsea for 2 billion pounds ($2.68 bln). It might have become the highest price ever paid for a sports team, but Abramovich declined the proposal. He is determined to sell Chelsea for 3 billion pounds ($3.9 billion).

Earlier, Chelsea stopped all design work on a future stadium estimated at about one billion pounds ($1.33 billion). The Times says Abramovich put the project on hold after being denied prolongation of his investment visa. Also, Abramovich reportedly turned to an investment bank for consultations over selling the club.

Abramovich acquired Chelsea in 2003 for 140 million pounds. The club has since won England’s championship five times, the EFL Cup thrice and the Football League Super Cup twice.