Furious Chelsea fans are being joined by dozens of French football supporters on Saturday in a protest march against their clubs' owners. The RC Strasbourg fans are coming to London to join a demonstration against Blueco, who own both their club and the Blues. There is widespread anger among both sets of fans at Blueco. Now, in a first, they are joining up to make their feelings known. Several hundred Chelsea fans are set to take part in the march before the Premier League game against Manchester United.
March organiser David Cook said: “The protest march alongside fans of RC Strasbourg is promoting a single, unified message: Blueco out. In the four seasons Blueco have been in charge of this once great club, we have seen an erosion of the mentality and values that made it successful at the elite level. This is not about entitlement; this is about standards. Blueco have continuously proven themselves to be unworthy custodians of the club through terrible mismanagement that has made our future as a club look very precarious.”
Cook added: “Strasbourg share our ownership issue and are battling to recoup their identity as a football club. We believe this could be a seismic moment in the history of football, with fans from two different countries marching together in an attempt to bring about change. We hope to see as many fans as possible joining us for the march, which will start outside the Wolfpack Inn at 6.45pm.”
Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali are the two key Blueco owners. Chelsea controversially took new boss Liam Rosenior from the French side after their previous manager Enzo Maresca left earlier in the season. Chelsea's season has fallen away in recent weeks. They need to beat United on Saturday to keep their Champions League prospects alive. Next weekend they face Leeds United at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final.
