Why football supporters are right to laugh at Chelsea in the club’s hour of need

Less than four weeks ago Chelsea were celebrating winning the Club World Cup. Yesterday officials were most likely seeking quotes for coach travel to Lille and a cheap hotel.

While the team that takes the field next Tuesday (assuming they can afford the fare) will wear the gold badge of ‘Fifa World Champions 2021’, the club shop which sells thousands of blue shirts has been forced to close its doors. Life comes at you fast sometimes.

The blow which befell Chelsea yesterday, when Roman Abramovich was placed on the UK government’s sanctions list, was seismic and without precedent in recent Premier League history.

The potential ramifications and knock-on effects are likely to have set alarm bells ringing in rival boardrooms and the offices of the league itself.

But amid the shockwaves of uncertainty it is vital to remember many supporters of all other clubs will be taking a moment, perhaps far more than a moment actually, to reflect on just how hilarious they find all this.

Certainly as a fan of Swindon, a club competing at a far lower level and done dirty by a string of dodgy owners in the 19 years Abramovich has been pumping billions into Chelsea, I’m finding enjoyment rather than empathy is my immediate reaction.

I won’t be alone. From Wigan to Wimbledon, Bury to Blackpool and all points in between, die-hard supporters will be looking at the fears and worries swirling around Stamford Bridge and thinking ‘welcome to the club’. And if that club faces an uncertain and potentially bleak future then all the funnier.

Football fans have been screwed over by the owners of their clubs for as long as those clubs have existed. It is one of the things we all have in common.

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