Abramovich aide Granovskaia wins High Court battle over Chelsea transfer
Former Chelsea chief Marina Granovskaia, a close aide of Roman Abramovich, has won a High Court battle against football agent Saif Alrubie over a payment of more than £2m.
Alrubie brought a lawsuit against Granovskaia, claiming that he was owed £2,182,782 in relation to Chelsea’s sale of defender Kurt Zouma to West Ham United in 2021.
But judge David Quest KC agreed to Granovskaia’s request to stay proceedings, ruled that Alrubie should pursue his claim via Football Association arbitration instead and ordered him to pay £150,000 plus VAT in costs on an interim basis.
“We welcome today’s High Court ruling in Ms Granovskaia’s favour,” said a spokesperson for the former Chelsea director.
“Our position has always been that Mr Rubie’s claim is baseless, but that if he wanted to pursue his unmeritorious claim, he should have done so in the proper forum, which the court has confirmed is Rule K arbitration.”
Chelsea backed Granovskaia’s position, offering to go to FA arbitration with Alrubie, despite her leaving the club in 2022 after Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK and forced to sell Chelsea.
Alrubie dropped a previous High Court claim against Chelsea for £2,900,637 in October, instead pursuing Granovskaia personally for what he says is unpaid commission on the Zouma transfer.
That came six months after Alrubie was found not guilty at Southwark Crown Court of sending threatening emails to Granovskaia in relation to the alleged debt.
Her barrister Kendrah Potts told the High Court that Alrubie’s motivation for suing Granovskaia in response “appears to be to achieve some form of vindication or retribution because he blames Ms Granovskaia for the criminal charge against him.”
Alrubie’s barrister Jonathan Crystal said Chelsea’s belated support for Granovskaia and offer of arbitration amounted to an attempt to “hijack” the lawsuit.
He added: “They could have brought the arbitration proceedings at any time – when the claim was issued, when the claim against the club was discontinued. What have they been doing since then?
“Now they threaten [arbitration] if we do not grant Ms Granovskaia a stay. We say that is an ultimatum. It’s a pretty ugly set of circumstances, whichever way you look at it.”