BREAKING | UK govt freezes Chelsea boss Abramovich's assets, club sale effectively put on hold

Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich was on Thursday hit with an assets freeze and travel ban as part of new UK government sanctions targeting seven Russian oligarchs.

Among others sanctioned are leading industrialist Oleg Deripaska, Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin and the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller, the government announced.

Speculation has swirled for weeks about whether Abramovich would be included on the targeted action against Russian billionaires perceived to be close to the Kremlin.

Abramovich announced last week that he was selling Chelsea, after buying the English Premier League side in 2003, and bankrolled its successes at domestic and European level.

The UK government estimated his net worth at £9.4 billion (11.1 billion euros, $12.2 billion), but said it was mitigating the effect of the sanctions on Chelsea by allowing the club to continue to operate.

A special licence "authorises a number of football-related activities", the government said in a statement.

"This includes permissions for the club to continue playing matches and other football-related activity which will in turn protect the Premier League, the wider football pyramid, loyal fans and other clubs," it added.

This means the sale of Chelsea has been shelved for the time being.

Added to that, no merchandise sales will be allowed and no player transfers or new contracts can be made.

Chelsea will also not be allowed to sell any more tickets as only season ticket holders can go to games for the foreseeable future.

Deripaska is Abramovich's one-time business partner, while officials described Sechin as Russian President Vladimir Putin's "right-hand man".

The four others -- Miller, VTB bank chairman Andrey Kostin, Transneft president Nikolai Tokarev