Chelsea FC Owner Roman Abrahamovich has been sanctioned by UK Government

Recently Chelsea Football Club Owner Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned by the UK Government as part of attempts to crackdown on wealthy Russians with assets in the country.  

The billionaire has been in charge of the Premier League football club that’s located in west London since 2003 but had his attempts to sell the club halted by the UK government, which has frozen every one of his assets. 

Roman Abramovich  is one of seven more Russian oligarchs who have had sanctions placed on them by the ministers in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It had been stated by the government that Mr Abramovich has had a “close relationship for decades” with Russian President Vladimir Putin which has led to the sanctions.   

Due to the sanctions placed on the club, many things change for the players, staff and supporters for the next couple of months. Firstly the club is still allowed to carry on playing games in the premier league and cup competition. They have been given special license by the government which allows the men’s and women’s teams to fulfil their fixtures for the rest of this season as normal. 

One of the main differences now is that most match going fans can’t attend the games now that there are sanctions in place.  Only season-ticket holders would still be able to attend games at Stamford Bridge as normal, while match tickets sold before the sanctions will be honoured. 

But beyond that, Chelsea supporters cannot buy any new tickets to watch Chelsea.  The club is also unable to sell any merchandise from the club shops. Which is a big let down overall to the supporters. 

 
Another huge factor while the sanctions are in place, is that Chelsea are effectively under a transfer ban and are unable to buy or sell players. They are also unable to negotiate new contracts for the players they currently own, so leaves an uncertain future for those whose current deals expire in the summer. 

That applies to some of the players; Antonio Rudiger, Cesar Azpilicueta, and Andreas Christensen, although a few of them have been linked with a move to FC Barcelona. So due to these sanctions a few of them may move clubs as the sanctions disallows them to negotiate new contracts.  

Chelsea was put up for sale on 2 March and there are many people and consortiums interested, despite Abramovich being sanctioned. The UK government is open to considering a further addition to the special licence to allow a sale to proceed, but none of the money would go to Abrahamovich.