SPORT: Football
Britain freezes all of Roman Abramovich’s assets, prohibiting him from selling Chelsea.

ROMAN Abramovich has been BANNED from sell­ing Chelsea after being sanc­tioned today for being a crony of Putin.

The club was thrown into lim­bo this morn­ing after the oli­garch froze his assets and banned him from vis­it­ing or doing busi­ness in Britain.

Chelsea have been grant­ed a spe­cial gov­ern­ment license to con­tin­ue play­ing, allow­ing tonight’s game against Nor­wich to kick off.

Fans who already have tick­ets will still be able to attend match­es, but the club is pro­hib­it­ed from sell­ing more tickets.

How­ev­er, The Sun under­stands Chelsea can still release tick­ets to rival clubs so their away sup­port­ers can attend matches.

Chelsea are also pro­hib­it­ed from sell­ing club mer­chan­dise in its offi­cial stores. Tapes can still be pur­chased from stores like JD Sports, but the club can­not get a discount.

Some of their only remain­ing sources of mon­ey will be sell­ing pies and burg­ers to Stam­ford Bridge fans and broad­cast­ing rights.

Under a cloud of crony­ism with Putin, Abramovic put the club on the mar­ket last week and pledged to use the prof­its for the Ukraine conflict.

Today’s new round of sanc­tions will pre­vent a sale from hap­pen­ing unless min­is­ters specif­i­cal­ly autho­rize it.

The gov­ern­ment “is open” to a sale but it’s clear Abramovich won’t get a penny.

Under the terms of the license — which expires on May 31 — play­ers and staff can still be paid, but Abramovich can no longer pump mon­ey into the club, leav­ing his future uncertain.

This will like­ly mean an effec­tive wage freeze for stars who will not be award­ed new contracts.

Russ­ian bil­lion­aire oli­garch is among sev­en Putin cronies sanc­tioned over Ukraine cri­sis
Abramovich is among sev­en Putin cronies sanc­tioned today for con­tin­u­ing to twist Rus­sia for wag­ing a cru­el war against Ukraine.

He has a net worth of £9.4billion and a sprawl­ing prop­er­ty port­fo­lio in Britain — which he can no longer vis­it after being hit with a trav­el ban.

Part of Abramovich’s wealth also includes an Azure Code man­sion that was inhab­it­ed by King Edward, who abdi­cat­ed the British throne in 1936, as well as a bond-style ski lodge and ranch in the Unit­ed States. United.

He bought Chelsea in 2003 but has­n’t attend­ed a game at Stam­ford Bridge for months.

The last home game Abramovich attend­ed was when Chelsea drew 1–1 with Man Utd at Stam­ford Bridge in Novem­ber 2021.

The Blues own­er was then seen cel­e­brat­ing when his side became world cham­pi­ons in Abu Dhabi on Feb­ru­ary 12 this year.

The bil­lion­aire was seen smil­ing hold­ing the World Cup as Chelsea won 2–1 against Palmeiras.

Cul­ture Sec­re­tary Nadine Dor­ries speaks to the Pre­mier League and Chelsea today – who only found out at 9am today.

She said: “Foot­ball clubs are cul­tur­al assets and the foun­da­tion of our com­mu­ni­ties. We are com­mit­ted to pro­tect­ing them.”

Sources have said it is vital that Chelsea con­tin­ue to oper­ate as the whole Pre­mier League will crum­ble if they shut down.