Abramovich sanctioned by the UK government

Abramovich has been sanctioned by the UK government and his assets frozen, including Chelsea. The club can no longer be sold.

Chlesea can continue to play the rest of the matches, and season ticket holders can go.

Chelsea are now banned from:

Offering new contracts to players or staff - Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta see their deals expire on June 30

Conducting any official transfer business

Selling new tickets to any game for any of their teams - including women and junior sides (season ticket holders and existing ticket holders only)

Selling merchandise to fans (existing merchandise can be sold via third parties)

No stadium work or redevelopment

Spending £500k on security, steward and catering costs per home match and £20k expenses per away games

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/12562138/chelsea-owner-roman-abramovich-sanctioned-by-uk-government

Wow that's bs

Sorry to state the obvious but Chelsea =/= Abramovich this decision hurts mostly the fans

How is that bs? he owns the club, its one of his assets.

Since a football club is important to fans they issued a special license to allow for continued operation, other wise it would simply be closed. They'll have to try to find a way to remove Chelsea from him and from this.

I would like to delve into the corporate governance of football clubs, as i am quite unsure of the ownership structure or who the ultimate beneficiary owner should be. Even so, i expect this to be hotly contested in court (as it should), one can argue the liability from this should be shouldered on the FA due to ownership-screening.

This all seems like an elaborate ploy to have club transferred to the government for governance reasons/refrain Abramovich from receiving any payout from sale.

Hope the government loses.

So who is paying the players?

rincon wrote:How is that bs? he owns the club, its one of his assets.

Since a football club is important to fans they issued a special license to allow for continued operation, other wise it would simply be closed. They'll have to try to find a way to remove Chelsea from him and from this.

Are you serious? Oh we are not shutting down the club, we will give you the opportunity to see it burn to the ground. Your welcome.

We will play Newcastle on the weekend, who were just purchased from the Saudi who have bombed Yemen extensively over the past decade.

Seems odd to do this considering he was putting the club for sale precisely to avoid this. Not sure what other assets he has, but it's very different freezing a bank account than shutting down a multi million pound enterprise that hundreds of people rely on.

Perhaps they could have just forced him to not interact with the club or draw any funds from it? Some sort of blind trust while this gets sorted?

Funded by blood money. Relegate them to the bottom tier of english football and put them up for auction. Strip every title they've won under Abramovich.

Relegate Newcastle similarly.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Seems odd to do this considering he was putting the club for sale precisely to avoid this. Not sure what other assets he has, but it's very different freezing a bank account than shutting down a multi million pound enterprise that hundreds of people rely on.

Perhaps they could have just forced him to not interact with the club or draw any funds from it? Some sort of blind trust while this gets sorted?

Its part of the point, he cannot sell the club to avoid sanctions.

It would have to be a sale structured in a way that he could not possibly benefit from it at all.

I mean.. he’s Russian.. should we sanction Israeli owners (hypothetical) of football clubs or better yet, some of the Sheikhs that own these teams like man city or PSG? The answer is no, leave politics out of football

Blue wrote:So who is paying the players?

Chelsea, they have to pay players, staff, etc.

FennecFox7 wrote:I mean.. he’s Russian.. should we sanction Israeli owners (hypothetical) of football clubs or better yet, some of the Sheikhs that own these teams like man city or PSG? The answer is no, leave politics out of football

Its not about football. The UK is not sanctioning Chelsea, in fact they've made an exception to allow Chelsea to continue operating.

Normally it would just be frozen and finished, as with the rest of the assets of the sanctioned individuals (companies, accounts, etc).

Boris Johnson new Chelsea manager allez

I'm all for sanctioning Abramovich, but it does leave Chelsea in an impossible situation. The Guardian article said that also broadcasting and prize moneys cannot be paid to the club, on top of no ticket sales. Chelsea FC will have no income. Apparently the club can be sold as long as Abramovich doesn't receive a penny from the sale, but a) who knows how long it could take to sell Chelsea anyway and b) where would the money go, then? How do you even negotiate a price for the club if the current owner won't receive any of it?

Chelsea going into administration must be a matter of a few months at most, unless it can be sold before that.

Art Morte wrote:b) where would the money go, then? How do you even negotiate a price for the club if the current owner won't receive any of it?

the British government, i presume?

Firenze wrote:Funded by blood money. Relegate them to the bottom tier of english football and put them up for auction. Strip every title they've won under Abramovich.

Relegate Newcastle similarly.

btw I know there are tons of shady folks in football with blood on their hands but the issue here is that with Abramovich it's so clearly defined and blatant. Chelsea also owe their entire successful era to him and his ill gotten riches. It sucks for Chelsea fans, but it is what it is. Seems like they'll be protected somewhat by the government, but definitely seems like some sort of club collapse is imminent.

Love to see it.

Firenze wrote:

Firenze wrote:Funded by blood money. Relegate them to the bottom tier of english football and put them up for auction. Strip every title they've won under Abramovich.

Relegate Newcastle similarly.

btw I know there are tons of shady folks in football with blood on their hands but the issue here is that with Abramovich it's so clearly defined and blatant. Chelsea also owe their entire successful era to him and his ill gotten riches. It sucks for Chelsea fans, but it is what it is. Seems like they'll be protected somewhat by the government, but definitely seems like some sort of club collapse is imminent.

Love to see it.

You are a complete hack dude, if you go down the rabbit hole of blood or dirty money then you might as well stop existing in a modern world. So giant sport sponsors like Nike or Adidas are not dirty? You likely wear one yourself. Is the money your club get from the Chinese not enough blood? I can go on and on.

You don't have to support Abramovich because you are a Chelsea fan. He absolutely, 100%, deserves this and more.

It's the problem with clubs having owners in general.

Three are pulling their sponsorship.

rincon wrote:You don't have to support Abramovich because you are a Chelsea fan. He absolutely, 100%, deserves this and more.

It's the problem with clubs having owners in general.

What makes Roman worse?

He was an orphan before the age of 4 and took advantage a faltering and chaotic society post USSR.

Just in time to take away from us Lukaku

Those sanctions are a joke. Punishment for being the friend of Putin, something many around the world are/were guilty of. Governments should find another diplomatic solution than freezing the assets of individuals.

Now they held hostage an english club and its english fans for measures that will not affect the russian assault in Ukraine in the slightest. A lot of drama for nothing.

Warrior wrote:Those sanctions are a joke. Punishment for being the friend of Putin, something many around the world are/were guilty of. Governments should find another diplomatic solution than freezing the assets of individuals.

It's not that simple. Dictators need enablers and that's what these billionaires are. They are given positions of power - either in business or government organizations - in exchange for their support.

Also, I listened to a short podcast the other day where the guest was a businessman-turned-corruption-investigator, who had a past of doing business in Russia, and one of the points he made was that these oligarchs hold Putin's money for him, because that way he doesn't have to try and hide all of it from the Russian people.

All these oligarchs deserve these sanctions, they are the corrupt elite that have enabled Putin's dictatorship.