Arkadiy Abramovich to succeed father Roman as owner of Chelsea Football Club

Weeks after he brought an oilfield in Siberia for m, Arkadiy Abramovich has been made favourite to succeed father Roman as owner of Chelsea Football Club. Bookmaker Paddy Power have given odds of 8/1 that the 19- year-old will be next to take over the reins at Stamford Bridge.

Arkadiy, Roman’s eldest son and heir, has already shown a keen interest in the club and in 2010 was linked to an unsuccessful attempt to take over Danish side FC Copenhagen. With Abramovich’s patience with all things Chelsea seemingly wearing thin and media scrutiny around the Russian at uncomfortable levels he could just decide now is the time to step away from the Blues with the odds on Arkadiy being the owner by the end of 2014 standing at 25/1.

If Abramovich did decide to throw in the towel there will be plenty of other billionaires who would fancy adding Chelsea to their portfolios. Retail magnates Philip and Christina Green are equal favourites to be the next owners of the club at 8/1, given their heavy involvement in football already. Owner of AS Monaco and fellow Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev is third favourite at 14/1 along with Mexican Carlos Slim, who recently rescued Spanish club Real Oviedo from folding.

Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who co-owns QPR, comes in at odds of 16/1 with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone at odds of 20/1. American businessmen currently have controlling stakes in a quarter of Premier League clubs and Steve Tisch, co-owner of the New York Giants, is the leading US contender at 20/1. Sir Richard Branson is 25/1 to swoop in as the next owner while Facebook creator Mark Zukerberg has odds of 40/1 to dip into his personal .4billion piggy bank and takeover the club.

A Paddy Power spokesman told Football Betting News; “Having reportedly poured over £2billion into the money pit that is Chelsea FC and having won pretty much every club title going, Roman might now decide that its someone else’s turn to the play the world’s most expensive game of Football Manager. Arkadiy seemingly has an interest in the game and we reckon if he can hold off the Greens then he’ll be in line to take over.”