Reports from Russian news sources had claimed Chelsea's billionaire Russian owner had been detained by the FBI in the United States, reports The Mirror. Russian channel RBC TV reported that Abramovich had been arrested by the FBI, but no supporting information was supplied to back up these claims.
Abramovich's Moscow spokesman John Mann first addressed the situation directly with individual journalists before taking to Twitter to officially deny the story.
The FBI themselves have also moved to deny the story, telling the UK media that reports of Abramovich's arrest are "categorically NOT true".