‘Suicide mission’ to threaten Roman Abramovich associate, court told

A football agent accused of sending a threatening email to a former Chelsea director has told a court that threatening someone with the “might” of the club’s former owner Roman Abramovich behind them would be a “suicide mission”.

Saif Alrubie, who claimed he played a part in facilitating the transfer of Kurt Zouma in August 2021 from Chelsea to West Ham for about £29 million, considered he was owed a percentage of the transfer amount and demanded payment from Marina Granovskaia, 49.

The 45-year-old defendant told police after his arrest on September 19 2022 – the day of the late Queen’s funeral – that he had been looking forward to watching the ceremony with his parents, and was unhappy being arrested coming off a plane “like I’m Pablo Escobar”.

The prosecution say Alrubie was not on the “deal sheet” created for the sale of the French defender, and had “no right to or credible expectation to” benefit from the transfer.

The defendant, of Fulham, west London, sent an email to Ms Granovskaia on May 22 2022 – when she was director of football at Chelsea – in which prosecutors said he implied she might “suffer the fate” of another agent, Kia Joorabchian, who was allegedly accosted and intimidated by people demanding payment.

Giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, Alrubie told jurors: “I’m sending an email to a woman who is the right hand of Roman Abramovich, one of the biggest Russian businessmen in the world.

“I’m only Saif Alrubie… I’m a small agent.

“I don’t think I would be stupid enough to be threatening anybody let alone somebody with the might of Roman Abramovich (behind them).

“That would just be me on a suicide mission. I’m not that stupid.”

He maintained that he intended to threaten Ms Granovskaia