Roman Abramovich sanctioned by UK government, unable to sell Chelsea

ROMAN ABRAMOVICH SANCTIONED BY UK GOVERNMENT, UNABLE TO SELL CHELSEA

The UK government has placed sanctions on Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. Foreign secretary Liz Truss said that a full asset freeze and a travel ban had been applied to Abramovich. Consequently, the 55-year-old will be unable to sell Chelsea. The club will still be able to continue trading as a football club after they were given a sporting licence

“As part of the UK’s leading efforts to isolate Putin and those around him, these oligarchs – who have a collective net worth of around £15bn – will have their assets in the UK frozen, they are banned from travelling here and no UK citizen or company may do business with them.

“Those newly-sanctioned by the UK include Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, worth more than £9 billion; leading industrialist Oleg Deripaska worth £2 billion, and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin.

A further group of Russia-based oligarchs close to Putin have also been placed under sanction. Those sanctioned today are:
Roman Abramovich owner of Chelsea FC and has stakes in steel giant Evraz and Norilsk Nickel
Oleg Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group
Igor Sechin is the Chief Executive of Rosneft
Andrey Kostin is Chairman of VTB bank
Alexei Miller is CEO of energy company Gazprom
Nikolai Tokarev is president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft
Dmitri Lebedev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya”
Chelsea have been issued with a licence which authorised the club to continue with a number of football-related activities, the statement added.
“Given the significant impact that today’s sanctions would have on Chelsea football club and the potential knock on effects of this, the Government has this morning published a licence which authorises a number of football-related activities to continue at Chelsea,” read the statement.

“This includes permissions for the club to continue playing matches and other football-related activity which will in turn protect the Premier League, the wider football pyramid, loyal fans and other clubs. This licence will only allow certain explicitly named actions to ensure the designated individual is not able to circumvent UK sanctions. The licence will be kept under constant review and we will work closely with the football authorities.”

It was widely reported that Chelsea will not be able to sell any match day tickets or merchandise despite the licence published by the government. However, fans with season tickets would still be able to attend matches.

The Russian billionaire ushered in a new era for Chelsea and the Premier League when he bought the club in 2003. However, after 19 years in charge, Abramovich had intended to sell Chelsea and went public with his intentions last week.