{"id":16661,"date":"2026-07-12T13:00:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=16661"},"modified":"2026-07-12T13:00:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T13:00:38","slug":"former-chelsea-chairman-ken-bates-passes-away-peacefully-aged-94-read-chelsea-f-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=16661","title":{"rendered":"Former Chelsea chairman Ken Bates passes away peacefully aged 94 &#8211; Read Chelsea F.C."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Chelsea are mourning the death of former chairman Ken Bates, who has died aged 94.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The club confirmed Bates passed away peacefully in Monaco on Saturday morning, surrounded by his wife Suzannah and family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chelsea said in a statement: \u201cKen\u2019s determination to fight for Chelsea when times were tough, and drive the team on to winning trophies will never be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bates served as Chelsea chairman for 22 years after buying the club in 1982, when it was facing severe financial trouble. The Guardian reports he purchased Chelsea for \u00a31 and later sold the club to Roman Abramovich in 2003.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ReadChelsea recently looked at Xabi Alonso\u2019s first training session at Cobham, but Saturday\u2019s news puts one of the club\u2019s most important historical figures back into focus.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Chelsea Football Club is today mourning the passing of former chairman Ken Bates.<\/p>\n<p>The club sends our heartfelt condolences to Ken\u2019s wife Suzannah, the rest of his family and his friends.<\/p>\n<p>Ken\u2019s determination to fight for Chelsea when times were tough, and drive the team on to\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CWJasPRj4c\">pic.twitter.com\/CWJasPRj4c<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 11, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bates Helped Keep Chelsea At Stamford Bridge<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bates remains one of the most significant and controversial figures in Chelsea history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His 22-year spell covered financial recovery, promotion back to the top flight, major trophies and the redevelopment of Stamford Bridge. Chelsea won the FA Cup twice, the League Cup, the UEFA Cup Winners\u2019 Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and two Full Members\u2019 Cups during his time in charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His biggest legacy, though, may be Stamford Bridge itself. Bates fought a long legal battle after the stadium freehold had fallen into property developers\u2019 hands, before the club secured its future at its historic home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Chelsea Pitch Owners scheme also came from that fight, giving supporters a formal role in protecting the Stamford Bridge pitch and club name.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bates\u2019 style divided opinion. He was combative, outspoken and often controversial. Few would question his place in the club\u2019s modern story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chelsea moved into the Abramovich era after Bates sold in 2003. The foundations of that handover were built across two turbulent decades under his leadership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For many supporters, his legacy will remain complicated. It will also remain impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea are mourning the death of former chairman Ken Bates, who has died aged 94&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}