Chelsea fans are set to suffer due to political posturing

The power of political posturing is incredible. United Kingdom’s government has just sanctioned Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, coincidently (or was it?), on the club’s 117th Anniversary and day the team travels to Norwich City. Reasons have been listed for these sanctions, reasons that the government has tried to link to the destabilization of Ukraine. None of these reasons are actually linked to anything happening to Ukraine though. Among the allegations are claims that Abramovich’s company supplies the Russian military with steel, which might have been used to make tanks. That is clearly a government trying to take out “frustration” on the closest link to a body that is doing something appalling.

Vladimir Putin is the Commander-in-Chief in Russia, so any action taken by the military was taken based on Putin’s order, an order that he gave without the counsel of anyone, be it inside or outside of the Kremlin. Chelsea is now set to suffer for the sanctions, a sanction that bars the Blues from selling players, renewing contracts and restricting the club from spending above a certain amount on matchday logistics. Chelsea fans cannot buy tickets and merchandise as things stand either. The Blues’ supporters are being pulled into these politics unfairly for an invasion of Ukraine by Putin. Even if the plan was to get at Abramovich, the sanctions have little impact on Abramovich himself, as the Russian oligarch was planning to sell the club and donate the money anyway.

Chelsea fans are set to suffer due to political posturing in the UK government

To insinuate that Abramovich is contributing to an invasion of Ukraine would be indirectly blaming him for something he has absolutely no control over. Putin is a dictator, and dictators are driven and influenced by one person: themselves. The one major indicator that this has nothing to do with Ukraine’s well-being, is the fact that they are linking the acquisition of state-owned assets by Abramovich to Putin and the destabilization of Ukraine.

This is ridiculous considering that Putin had nothing to do with Abramovich’s acquisition of those assets. Putin wasn’t even in power at that time. Russia was selling off state owned property, Abramovich didn’t influence that. He paid legitimate money for those assets that were turned into billions. Another allegation is that his metal company is somehow responsible for the war Putin launched on Ukraine. Abramovich took the risk to get into a very dangerous metal industry as the climate of that industry was volatile in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Chelsea players are forced to still perform to their absolute best these next few weeks, despite knowing that many of them may be forced to stay at the club longer than they want, for something they have absolutely nothing to do with. The UK government conveniently designed these sanctions in a way that made sure the Premier League was still going to get its money from the Blues though. This has nothing to do with doing away with anything that is Russian, just a deliberate attempt at political posturing to look virtuous in the face of the public. The Premier League has a lot to answer for if Chelsea is unable to play fixtures, so in order to make sure that they (the UK government) through the Premier League aren’t affected by the sanctions, they made sure Chelsea could still operate purely as a football club and not a business.

The vilification of Roman Abramovich in the wake of the invasion on Ukraine is appalling, yet embarrassingly unsurprising. Abramovich is being painted as the villain in a league that has two clubs owned by Saudi Arabian investors—that’s rich.

What are your thoughts on the situation? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!