Given the recent situation between Russia and Ukraine, oligarch and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has recently gotten his assets frozen. As a result, Chelsea is potentially facing financial ruin, going from one of the richest clubs in Europe, to the poorest on Earth.
Running a premier league caliber team requires massive amounts of funding, private planes, luxury hotels and round the clock catering, which are just a few of the thousands of side costs imposed on every sports club around the world. The player's contracts at Chelsea alone lie somewhere between 9 figures each year. In 2021, the Blues accounted for costs of around 500 million GBP.
The sanctions imposed on Chelsea’s owner Roman Abramovich, come with heavy restrictions for the London club. As a result of his assets being frozen, Chelsea is not allowed to sell new tickets for new games, sell club merchandise, buy players or renegotiate current players contracts, as well as a 20,000 pound budget on away games.
When facing such financial restrictions, the only option is selling the club. Whilst having numerous interested buyers such as Josh Harris and Nick Candy, the sale will not go through unless it is taken over and sold through the British government on Abramovich’s behalf, in which case the Russian oligarch would not receive any of the proceedings of the sale.
It will be interesting to see how Chelsea handles its current situation within the next few weeks, given their upcoming away games and champions league fixtures against Real Madrid. Tomas Tuchel, Chelsea's manager has recently stated that “as long as there are enough shirts and a bus to drive, we’ll be there and compete hard”. Some players such as German international Kai Havertz have gone out and said that they have no issue paying for transportation fees. If the transfer ban is sustained till after the summer, the blues will be forced to look at their academy players such as Conor Gallagher and Tino Livramento which have been performing at a top level whilst on loan at Crystal Palace and Southampton.
By Nick