Roman Abramovich disqualified as Chelsea director but club sale set to progress

Roman Abramovich has been disqualified as a director of Chelsea by the Premier League board but the sale of the club is expected to progress with UK government oversight.

The sanctioning of Blues owner Abramovich by the UK government on Thursday saw the Russian-Israeli billionaire’s UK assets frozen, including Chelsea, which stalled proceedings.

Chelsea have been handed a new licence to continue operations, however, and the European champions are still locked in negotiations with the British government to ease restrictions.

New York merchant bank the Raine Group has now assessed the terms of the licence and agreed a route forward for the sale with the government, the PA news agency understands.

The Premier League board’s decision to disqualify Abramovich is unlikely to have any real impact, as the sale process was already under way. It does not affect Chelsea’s ability to play matches.

There was some positive news for the club on Saturday, meanwhile, with the licence amended to allow up to £900,000 to be spent per home match.

The UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport welcomed the Premier League’s action and said of the licence in a statement: “We have said all along that we would engage with Chelsea to understand what is needed to allow upcoming games to be played to minimise the impact on the Leagues, football pyramid and fans.

“Following extensive engagement with the club on the details of their structures since the sanction was announced, we have made some further operational amendments to the licence to do so.”

Abramovich put Chelsea up for sale on March 2nd, pledging to write off the Blues’ £1.5billion debt and to divert all proceeds to a new foundation to benefit victims of the war in Ukraine.

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