London Briefing: The connection between oil prices, the world economy and Chelsea football club is probably apparent to most British soccer fans, writes Chris Johns.
The new owner of Chelsea, Mr Roman Abramovich, seems to have made most of his considerable fortune in the Russian oil industry.
Reports about his personal wealth range from £1.8 billion sterling (€2.5 billion) in Forbes magazine, which also calculates he is the second-richest Russian and the 49th-richest person in the world, to £3.4 billion in the Sunday Times.
Rich men often do odd things with their money and many of them have heavily invested in sport of one form or another.
It has become something of a cliché. A long time ago, rock band Pink Floyd wrote: "I think I'll buy me a football team" in their satirical song Money about the nouveaux riche.
I suspect that rich women have much less of a track record in throwing money at sporting ventures.
Mr Abramovich has other hobbies. According to Time magazine, the usually frozen north-eastern Russian province of Chukotka has benefited by as much as $300 million (€265.5 million) of his largesse, as he has invested in a range of businesses including hotels and supermarkets. Chukotka's population could just about fill the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The motives for these investments are about as clear as the ones underlying the money pouring into Chelsea.
Could Mr Abramovich make any serious return on his soccer investments? It's certainly possible but history is against him. The most recent example of money failing to buy on-field or business success is Leeds United. But even scoring more goals than the opposition does not necessarily bring rewards to the bottom line. Just ask Real Madrid.
Most soccer fans are, of course, not interested in whether Chelsea will make a profit. The real question for most people is whether Chelsea can actually win the Premiership and, ultimately, the Champions' League. Again, history suggests not.
Newcastle, a favourite team for many, who seem to elicit genuine affection in ways that Manchester United can only dream about, has spent a fortune in recent years but has won nothing.
According to some estimates, Newcastle has spent £100 million over the past decade. Liverpool spent nearly as much, with nearly as little success. Manchester United spent around £78 million over the same period, just a bit more than Middlesborough.
Fans with a slightly longer memory will cite the example of Blackburn Rovers, another team that benefited from huge cash injections from a rich businessman. The team quickly won promotion and, shortly afterwards, the league, but were almost as quickly relegated. It is not clear whether Jack Walker ever received a decent dividend on his shareholding.
At this point, most fans would reiterate that it is more than just money. What Jack Walker built at Blackburn is, they argue, beyond price.
We are about to see this argument tested to destruction, at least in a British context. If football clubs are really greater than the sum of their parts, as promoters of the beautiful game argue, Chelsea will need more than just cash.
Big league sport is in decline in the US, at least in terms of people turning up and tuning in to watch the games. Off-field player behaviour is turning some parents off and multimillionaire players going on strike for yet more cash has also played a role. Somehow, the spirit seems to be slipping away from the heart of some sports, even that most iconic of games, baseball.
The suspicion of many is that when the money became the only reason to play the game, something valuable was lost.
If Chelsea do succeed in buying the Champions' League, I suspect that we will witness the start of a similar phenomenon. If it is simply as easy as spending a lot of money, we will see some of the mystery die.
Soccer has a unique brand, always a very difficult concept to define and acquire. Brands that have durability are not just bought: if they were, we would all own one. Ask anyone who has tried to build a brand through advertising alone. It's a lot harder than that.
Money is an important ingredient for most sports these days. But the business of sport is not quite the same thing as business. However, if that is where we are heading, then what drugs have done for swimming and athletics, money will do for soccer.
