Forbes
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has had his assets frozen by the UK government, including Chelsea Football Club.
The sanctions come as the UK government claims Abramovich has connections to the Putin regime. He had put Chelsea up for sale but the sanctions mean that he will be unable to sell the club without government approval.
It also means the club is unable to buy or sell players or offer players new contracts. Chelsea is also banned from selling any merchandise, or selling any additional tickets, meaning that only season ticket holders or those who bought tickets ahead of the asset freeze can attend games.
In the coming weeks, this won’t have too much of an impact on the club, but should the asset freeze continue into the summer, the impact will be huge.
Firstly, as Chelsea is unable to offer new contracts, players like Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen will leave the club. If Chelsea had hoped of offering them new contracts then that ship has sailed, they’ll be looking out for their future rather than waiting around until their contract expires.
The bigger problem for Chelsea is that broadcast and prize money will be frozen. A few lost ticket sales won’t hurt Chelsea too much, but once those broadcast payments stop coming through, the club will struggle to pay players’ salaries, and might be forced to release its star players from their contracts, losing a large portion of the team for free. That would see Chelsea quickly fall down the leagues if it were to persist.
Arsenal fans might like that thought, but the British government knows the value of the Premier League to the country and is unlikely to kill the goose that lays its cultural golden eggs. The government is keeping Chelsea’s license under review, so will likely make adjustments if needed to keep the club from falling completely apart. Despite the asset freeze, the government is not opposed to a sale, although it might not be that straightforward.
If Chelsea is allowed enough money to honor the current player contracts, then the situation next season would look more like Frank Lampard’s first year in charge of the club, where it was under a transfer embargo and was unable to sign players. Chelsea played several young players then, and has plenty of young stars on loan currently like Armando Broja and Conor Gallagher who might get a look in next season. That in turn could affect summer transfer plans of the teams who have loaned those players, as Southampton, for example, would be unable to sign Broja permanently.
Chelsea fans might be wondering what they have done to deserve this, but Roman Abramovich has benefited massively from owning Chelsea. He is now a well-known public figure who has soccer fans singing his name, even as recently as in Chelsea’s last match. He has used the club to “sportswash” his reputation, so that the first thing people think of when they hear his name is all the trophies Chelsea has won…
