Chelsea sale blocked in oligarch crackdown

The sale of Chelsea football club is on hold and ticket sales to its Premier League matches banned under fresh UK sanctions on Russian oligarchs.

Roman Abramovich is one of the seven oligarchs now banned from any transactions with British individuals and businesses. Picture: AFP

The sale of Chelsea football club has been put on hold and the sale of any tickets to its Premier League matches is banned after fresh British sanctions were placed on seven Russian oligarchs.

Roman Abramovich, who announced last week that he would be selling the Chelsea club, which he once valued at £4bn, is now banned from any transactions with British individuals and businesses. The seven oligarchs — whose collective wealth tops £15bn ($27bn) – also face a travel ban and other transport sanctions.

But the British government allowed a number of football-related activities to continue. The club will be permitted to continue playing matches and other football-related activity to protect the Premier League, fans and other clubs, the government said.

Australia’s Sam Kerr plays for Chelsea. Picture: Getty Images

“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,’’ British authorities said in a statement on late on Thursday.

The British government is making sure that Mr Abramovich won’t be able to profit from any sale of the club.

Mr Abramovich sold a 73 per cent stake in Russian oil firm Sibneft to state-owned gas titan Gazprom for £9.87bn in 2005 and has a net worth estimated at £9.4bn.

The government said “Abramovich is one of the few oligarchs from the 1990s to maintain prominence under Putin. None of our allies have yet sanctioned Abramovich”.

Mr Abramovich’s one-time business partner Oleg Deripaska has also been sanctioned.

Mr Abramovich has owned Chelsea for 19 years but during that time he has been highly litigious against authors, journalists and organisations who have pointed to his close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.

The others to be sanctioned are Mr Putin’s right-hand man Igor Sechin, who is also chief executive of Rosneft, Andrey Kostin, chairman of VTB bank, Alexei Miller, chief executive of Gazprom, Nikolai Tokarev, president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft and Dmitri Lebedev, chairman of Bank Rossiya.

Antonio Rudiger plays Chelsea during the Premier League match against Burnley last week. Picture: Getty Images

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine.

“Today’s sanctions are the latest step in the UK’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people. We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies.”

The British government has been at the forefront of crippling Russia’s economy because of its invasion of Ukraine, with sanctions imposed on 200 individuals and 500 companies and entities. The sanctions have primarily focused on key sectors of Russia’s economy including the defence industry, transport and financial institutions.

Next week an Economic Crime Bill comes into force. The government said this will to make it even easier to impose sanctions and stop oligarchs threatening the UK with multi-million pound lawsuits for damages at the taxpayer’s expense and also allow the UK to mirror allies’ designations.