Roman Abramovich ‘Broke’ Chelsea Bonus Promise Made to Players in Dressing Room

A former Chelsea player has claimed that the club’s previous owner, Roman Abramovich, backtracked after telling the squad he would double their bonuses after they won a crucial Champions League tie.

Russian billionaire Abramovich purchased Chelsea on July 1, 2003, and even he may not have been able to envisage the future success of the now world-renowned London club.

When then-Chelsea chairman Ken Bates finalised the sale of the Premier League club for a reported £140 million - £60 million for the club and £80 million in debt – the side had just finished fourth and reached the quarter-finals of both the FA Cup and League Cup under Claudio Ranieri that season.

Fast forward to the 2004/05 campaign, and Jose Mourinho, fresh from securing the Champions League with Porto, was in charge and quickly made his mark on English football by winning the Premier League in both his first and second seasons in charge.

A year earlier, with Ranieri at the helm, the Blues reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in the 2003/04 campaign before losing to AS Monaco.

Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 (Credit:Getty)

But it was after a 2-1 win (3-2 on aggregate) away at Arsenal in the quarter-final second leg that Abramovich promised his players a huge bonus.

In his 2025 book, ‘Luxury Player’, former Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole explained how Abramovich visited the players in the dressing room while they celebrated their victory at Highbury.

“That night, Roman came in as usual with his crew,” Cole said.

“You could see in his face that even this guy, pokerfaced and inscrutable at the best of times, was in the football parlance absolutely buzzing. So were we.

“And it wasn’t just about the glory of [reaching] the semi-finals; we players had each secured a £50,000 last four bonus. [Adrian] Mutu turned down the music and shouted, ‘double bonus’.

“All the lads looked at Roman… ‘double bonus’, shouted Roman in agreement. The room went wild [before] Mutu turned the music down again and shouted, ‘double double’, we turned back to Roman, but his guys were already bundling him out of the room before he promised to drop another £1 million.”

Cole later revealed that the squad “never got paid” the bonus which the Russian billionaire had promised them, as changing bonus schedules during a season was against the rules.

Joe Cole in action against Arsenal in 2004 (Credit:Getty)

And despite failing to pay up on that occasion, there’s no doubt that Abramovich transformed Chelsea, with his investment resulting in the club winning 21 major trophies - including two UEFA Champions League crowns - between 2003 and 2022.

However, in 2022, he sold Chelsea to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital for £2.5bn, but the proceeds of the sale remain frozen in a UK bank account.

Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in March 2022. He cannot access the funds, but they still legally belong to him.

The 59-year-old previously pledged that the money would be used to benefit victims of the invasion, but he has yet to fulfil the promise despite the UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer encouraging him to “pay up now”.