Chelsea Chairman Bruce Buck admits the board will now have to regroup and discuss, along with owner Roman Abramovich, how to move forward after their failure to win enough votes to buy back the freehold of Stamford Bridge. "We are disappointed but we respect that Chelsea Pitch Owners shareholders have spoken and we will take that into consideration and see where we go from here," Buck told Sky Sports News.
"The full board will discuss this, and will discuss it with Mr Abramovich, and then we will decide what action, if any, we'll take. It would be wrong to speculate at this point because we just don't know."
Chelsea want the freehold back in order to help finance their move to a new purpose-built stadium, but Buck admits they may remain at Stamford Bridge.
"We can't do much with the ground but we still have to make a decision on whether it is essential to move, in terms of if we move to a 55,000 or 60,000 stadium whether we really could fill it," said Buck.
Buck also dismissed suggestions that Chelsea had tried to rush through their plans.
"Chelsea fans are very emotional and have a strong attachment to Stamford Bridge, and the traditions and history of this club," he explained.
"I recognise that, I have the same attachments, so I don't take anything they said as a personal attack.
"I don't think we have tried to railroad this through. There has been plenty of time for discussion of the proposal.
"We wouldn't have made the proposal unless we thought it was going to be accepted, but having said that 63 or 64 per cent of the shareholders did accept it, which is more than the majority. We always knew that reaching 75 per cent was going to be difficult.
"Where I want Chelsea to be is one of the handful of top clubs in Europe, and if that means we have to move to a new stadium to achieve that, I think we should do it."
