Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick addresses Roman Abramovich Chelsea sanctions

Ralf Rangnick has suggested there should be greater scrutiny on the ownership of football clubs in England after the Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned over 'clear connections' with Russian president Vladimir Putin amid the war in Ukraine.

The UK government announced it had frozen Abramovich's assets on Thursday, preventing Chelsea from selling tickets, renegotiating contracts with players or signing any transfer targets.

Abramovich completed his takeover of Chelsea in 2003 but the Champions League winners have been left in limbo after the government’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation suspected Evraz plc, a steel company Abramovich had effective control of, supplied steel to the Russian military to produce tanks for their invasion. Abramovich did not condemn the invasion in either of his two statements in the last two weeks.

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Everton have severed ties with oligarch Alisher Usmanov's companies and Usmanov held shares in Arsenal from between 2007 and 2018.

"To be honest, everybody I think shares the same opinion that this is a tragedy, what's happening over there," Rangnick said, "and everybody can only say fingers crossed that they find somehow a peaceful solution once again.

"And it affects all the measures that have been taken politically with regards to the economy, that it also affects now the football business seems to be logical to me. I don't have enough inside information to speak about what's happening now at Chelsea.

"If you look at the bigger picture, it's just a human tragedy and I very, very much hope in the next days and weeks they can find a peaceful solution. Anyone in this room or wherever, could anybody foresee what was happening there in the