Chelsea have, in effect, found themselves in limbo following confirmation that owner Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned by the UK Government.
The Russian, who has a net worth of around $12.9billion, recently announced he is looking to sell the Premier League club amid news of his nation’s invasion of Ukraine and the war being raged by president Vladimir Putin in eastern Europe.
Abramovich’s sanction by the UK government, has Chelsea football club presently in a state of limbo.
All of Abramovich’s UK assets were frozen, including a London property worth £200m, a 15-bedroom mansion at Kensington Palace Gardens, valued at more than £150m, and a three-storey penthouse at Chelsea Waterfront acquired in 2018 for a reported £22m. While Chelsea football can still operate under a special licence, the decision to sell the club by Abramovich will now have to be put on hold. However, if the club owner insisted on selling, he could do so with supervision from the Uk Government, they said a sale would be considered, provided it is demonstrated he would not benefit in any way from that sale.
The news will also impact Chelsea in several other ways and are wide-ranging, meaning all the club’s teams, including Emma Hayes’ highly-successful women’s side, are affected.
Chelsea face a hectic end to the 2021/22 season with star players out of contract, an owner who has had his assets frozen and a ban on commercial activities
How about transfers and contracts?
Chelsea will effectively be under a transfer embargo moving forward and will currently not be able to conduct business in the transfer market this summer.
They will also be unable to confirm new contracts for their players.
Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta are among numerous stars whose deals expire this summer.
Several other Chelsea players will see their contracts run out in 2023 including N’Golo Kante, Jorginho, Ross Barkley, Thiago Silva, Marcos Alonso and Kenedy.
The sanction provides that Chelsea be unabke to sell matchday tickets anymore and will now have to play their home games with reduced crowds. Only season ticket holders will be permitted to attend games for the foreseeable future. Chelsea have around 28,000 season ticket holders while Stamford Bridge holds just under 42,000. Also, fans who have already purchased tickets to future matches will be able to attend.
A few minutes ago also, the company 3′ who are the shirt sponsors of the club announced that they would ending thier contract with the club.
The club could be easily described as going through crisis following all of the above issues.