- Former Chelsea CEO Marina Granovskaia was at Stamford Bridge on Sunday
- Granovskaia was a director at Chelsea for eight years before leaving in 2022
- LISTEN NOW: It all starts!available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday
Marina Granovskaia was among the spectators at Stamford Bridge on Sunday during Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Newcastle United.
The Russian-Canadian businesswoman had not attended a Chelsea match since leaving her role as the club’s CEO in June 2022.
Granovskaia was a director at Chelsea for eight years before leaving 28 months ago, shortly after Todd Boehly bought the club from Roman Abramovich.
She also worked as Abramovich’s chief assistant for more than a decade.
During her time on Chelsea’s payroll, Granovskaia – who famously played a key role in the club’s transfer dealings – watched matches from the boardroom at Stamford Bridge.
Marina Granovskaia pictured at Stamford Bridge during Chelsea’s match against Newcastle
This was Granovskaia’s first appearance at Stamford Bridge since leaving the club in 2022
But on Sunday she was among the regular gamblers.
Granovskaia documented her day out by sharing several photos via Instagram, alongside the words: ‘First time with the supporters at Stamford Bridge and no, I wasn’t tall enough to see the goals! But great to be back and witness such a great performance and important victory!’
Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer were Chelsea’s goalscorers on Sunday, with their strikes coming either side of a goal from Newcastle’s Alexander Isak.
The result saw Chelsea finish the weekend fifth in the Premier League.
Granovskaia had taken to Instagram earlier this week to wish Abramovich a happy 58th birthday.
Granovskaia watched Chelsea win 2-1, but joked that she was too small to see the goals
Granovskaia pictured in 2017, sitting next to Roman Abramovich (right) at Stamford Bridge
On Thursday, she shared an old photo of herself with Chelsea’s former owner.
The photo was captioned: ‘Given the number of messages sent to this page referencing Roman, I thought it would be good to wish him a very happy birthday here (you never know, maybe he’ll read!) .
“Roman played a huge role in my life from 1997 to 2022 and I know he touched the lives of many of you, so I have a feeling there will be many congratulations below… Congratulations Roman!”
Abramovich was the man in charge at Chelsea from 2003 to 2022.
His sale of Chelsea came after the Premier League disqualified him as the club’s director amid accusations that he was an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who recently invaded Ukraine.
Since Abramovich left Chelsea, the new owner has employed six different managers.
Sunday’s win over Newcastle was current manager Enzo Maresca’s fourteenth match.
Chelsea’s players celebrated during Sunday’s win over Newcastle in West London
After the match, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca was seen blowing kisses to the crowd
Speaking to BBC Sport after the match, Maresca said: ‘Overall I was very happy with everything, but especially with the way we worked without the ball and pressed together. We fought together.’
On how Chelsea are doing in the Premier League, he added: ‘I have often said that the club never talked about the top four. They just said they were trying to build something important. We’ll see.’