Why has Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich been sanctioned? - BBC News 

I love how the US and UK act as if they got surprised with the existence of the oligarchs

Roman is the reason Chelsea is a top club, both inside and outside UK

I am a man utd fan. I am wondering how this is legal. Roman is Chelseas club owner who happens to be Russian. Whether he has ties with Putin does not mean he is in agreement with his actions. UK and US have not Sanctioned Israel and they have been bombing the Palestinians for over 40 years. Neither have they sanctioned Saudi Arabia for their atrocities. Football is a sport and has no business in the game of politics. Like everyone i am sure i feel for the people of Ukraine and hope the war on them comes to a swift end. Financially this may hurt Roman but it is not about finance. It is clear that the man loves the club otherwise it would have passed hands years ago. Has the UK thought about the impact of the staff and players? There is so much hypocrisy in politics! Who supplied weapons to Saddam Hussein and then branded him a tyrant?! Sanctions are aimed at Putin and quite rightly so, but then Israel should face sanctions for the bombardment of the Palestinians for over 40 years. Palestine has been there since Biblical times Israel was created in 1946. You should not chose who you sanction when wrong is wrong. The treatment of Roman is a poor judgement on the part of the UK. Britain has never condemned Saudia Arabia because they have a good relationship with the King. Roman is not obliged to say anything he can remain silent on things like the UK has for many years

I actually think this is sort of unfair to Roman. The UK & the US are willing to accept the oligarchs money and let's be honest Chelsea has greatly benefitted the UK.

Hypocrisy at it's finest lol.

I am British born as well as a U.K. tax payer. I will be handing myself into the government to be sanctioned on Monday morning due to my tax money being used to make military equipment to the Saudi regime (who own Alan Shearers beloved Newcastle Utd) who have illegally invaded Yemen. If this is the governments logic… Don’t screw the fans over! Match day tickets should still be sold with all gain going back to the staff and players.

There's politics in everything Don't be fool that politics don't go in-line with sports, now it's clear.

This has to be the biggest short change in history

Fascinating how this sanction against Abramovich has been decided without going to the court. That does not show anything good for the future of the democracy as this can be also used to any people who disagree with the government. It's also a bad signal for the future investors who, now, know they can loose their investment without any judgement.

The self appointed pontiffs of the world have never paid for colonism, oppression or mass murder, yet it is easy to sanction someone for association yet they have committed unspeakable crimes

War has always been about money. This has exposed the reality.

Well Abramovich simply can't criticize Putin, if he didn't want to endanger himself and his family. That's blatantly obvious.

Abramovich purchased Chelsea in 2003. Why, nobody have a problem with that, until now ? Abramovich transformed Chelsea into a super club, and he will be the greatest owner, of this club, in my opinion. I'm not from UK, and I'm not a Chelsea fan .

So what has Abrahamovic done different in the last 3 months that turned him from a decent businessman to a pariah overnight?

_"It's not what you know, but what you can prove!"_ Denzel Washington, Training Day

The first British football club to be nationalised...

Bullocks leave our club and Roman and Russian people in general out of this conflict 🤬

reporter: "why was abramovitch sanctioned by uk... but not all of the others oligarch sanctioned by the eu and the us ?" bojo: "we need their dirty money... they'll flock to the uk... with the money they can't invest elsewhere... efficient... meanwhile, obviously, we make a lot of noise about how decisively we are acting against all oligarchs... and about how warmly we welcome all ukrainians having a visa (visa that we deny them as much as possible, of course) " 🙂

What the hell did Roman do? He is not involved in the war in Ukraine.

This is absurd. It is his money, his club. This is ridiculous. How do you deny someone of his business proceeds. A complete violation of human right.

Roman Abramovich has always been a guy who rarely goes to social media. It will be hard to know what's next for Chelsea's future

Abra as been sanctioned because he from Russia , maybe if he was from America/Saudi Arabia who are also doing the same thing Russia is being criticized for then he wouldn't have been sanctioned. This is Just another legal way for the UK to commit robbery legally after their other activities are now deemed illegal.

i find it very revealing, how the UK was totally ok with all these very rich russians in London up to now.....all that money being "parked" in London "financial institutions" must have made quite a lot of "locals" very rich too...so there was no hurry to question the morals of all that money so far..... i'll leave it at that......but just this much...i don't like it....never have.

Thxs for showing the interview that he did! I wanted to watch for a long time but couldn't find it on youtube

This is ridiculous, Roman hasn’t taken a profit from Chelsea for years and is willing to forfeit the 1.5 billion dollar loan. Not allowing the sale of tickets only affects jobs for vulnerable people living in the uk who work at the stadium and fans of the club who have nothing to do with this war. By all means sanction and banish Roman, but don’t punish the fans and staff who have mortgages to pay and families to feed. Uk government is reacting to quickly and haven’t thought this through at all.

*I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.*

Why has it taken this long?

Cuz he’s Russian, rich and he’s knows Putin.

The western definition of oligarch is literally Russian Billionaires.... if you're an American Billionaire, you magically turn into an "Entrepreneur"

Our Gov should have made it illegal to sell any company to any foreign entity. The Americanisation of this country was it’s undoing. All for a greedy few to max their profits.

I don't get it. Why is he being sanctioned?

What a joke. Poor Chelsea players.

What about the British invasion of Iraq? Will the British businessmen linked to Tony Blair be sanctioned too? That's the British way of thanking investors

A bit rich from shearer considering his beloved Newcastle are owed by such a great brunch of people . Do me a favour stick to football

At least Tuchel had the balls to speak against the violence in Ukraine

Is this legal? Not very respectful of the rights of rights of a lawful citizen. Everytime a crisis occurs gouvernement feel entitled to make up new rules. Very slippery slope.

I wonder will the Tory party or its MPs be asked to give up any donations that can be traced back to the regime?

We need now an independent investigation into the influence of Russian money in UK politics. A no holds barred look, one that the conservatives cannot stifle.

Sanction a private citizen because of the action of a government

The British government knows who Abramovitsj was/is, but he is allowed to settle in UK freely. Money money money....that is the case.

That means the club can be seized by the UK and auctioned off.

I don't blame him if he spoke out against it he would get way worse than sanctions and frozen assets .

Are these sanctions not temporal. If so the funds from the sale of the club where does it go if the sanctions are lifted....

Roman turned Chelsea from a £120 million club to one that it worth £3 billions. It is a proven fact that he is a great business man,

Interesting that the sanctions against Abramovich didnt take force until AFTER his mega-yacht was able to leave port in Barcelona.

I wonder how this is a legal act..I don't get it.So this is the so called democratic system

What makes a “tie”? Something about this doesn’t sit right with me. Can’t put my finger on it.

They've always wanted their team back. The UK has never wanted their teams owned by foreigners

When this war ends in the coming weeks I genuinely want to see what will happen next, coz Russia will definitely be called for peace talks after that, I'm really Intrigued to see what happens next

Why, NOW!!!All are political bulshit and dirty game .

This war has really been an eye 👀 opener, revealing things that are mind blowing.

As a Spurs fan this doesn't do much more than punish player's and fans he wants to sell so let the club operate as normal just keep the money going to him why should normal people be punished to

This is insane, he spent billions on the Club and still Cant get a penny of the Sale, meanwhile the club contributed billions To the British Economy

Why? Because he's "low hanging fruit"! He's easy to find and therefore easy to sanction... not that it's going to do anything to stop the war and suffering and absolutely insane destruction.

Why is he silent?

"No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her property". Remind me which court decided so? Oh, there wasn't any court at all

As I understand it (I hope I’m wrong) there is a huge amount of property in London that nobody knows who the beneficial owners are. This “hiding” of owners identity is achieved by using offshore companies and/or a complicated trail of ownerships. I WOULD SUGGEST THAT A LAW BE PASSED THAT ACTUAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL PROPERTY BE VISIBLE ON A SIMPLE SEARCH AND THAT ANY PROPERTIES WHERE THE OWNERSHIPS CANNOT BE VERIFIED BE FROZEN AND SIEZED AS PART OF A BID TO CRACKDOWN ON THE OLIGARCHS AND MONEY LAUNDERING OUTFITS. IF PEOPLE CAN PROVE THEIR OWNERSHIPS THEN GENUINE OWNERS WONT HAVE DIFFICULTIES COMING FORWARD. People, where the origins of the Money is questionable will of course be outraged and fight tooth and nail against this suggestion. We live in extraordinary times so extraordinary measures are called for. Stay safe everyone. ☘️😢🌲

Didn’t the British do it to the Irish for 800 years but now it’s different…. TAL

So that's the explination of what is going on but not why.

Ummmmmmmm wasn't this reported days now, so why still answer that question.

How can the government just steal somebody's money like this. Did our country and business leader loss all their money when we invaded Iraq?

I honestly cant believe everyone has fallen for this.

When Krusty Burger became IRS Burger...

Its about time

Foreign people will be afraid of investing in Bitain from now on and foreign countries will also not welcome British investment in their countries.

Yet another example why Football clubs should not be owned by private enterprises

Pretty much doomed the club to a poorly structured rushed sale, this is not going to be a good thing for the club.

Q why didn’t this Govt sanction Russia after the annexation of the Crimea or Salisbury and will they hand back all the VAT they have received during his ownership?

Just stupid I respect his move to sell the club to save its reputation but to keep chasing the guy when all the issues that are going on are in Ukraine !!! Spend the time and money in the people of Ukraine if you ask the people that will agree on this point

I think other football clubs which own by Foreign billionaires or millionaires also should have learned something from this Chelsea case and should have a deep concerns that this can happen anytime to them in the future. I am not talking about right or wrong about Russia and Putin. One day if Britain is not happy with Middle East countries, what will happen to those clubs like Man city and New Castle? Setting fire on the entire warehouse just because of you cannot catch a small rat is not the solution.

Wonder how Alan Shearer feels about Newcasles new owners ?

Very weird thing happening now!

Excuse me! There are no Sanctions. There is only Special Economic Operations!

wonder how he has caused this war or even contributed to it. I honestly believe he might be being discriminated for something he has no control over, not right that aint if that's the case

Someone's pulling strings over this, when will we get all the facts about the situation?

Awww such a “difficult” decision …

Time to look into British companies and corporations like the government with close relationships with Putin

Just because he's Russian, nothing else.

Merci

In America, they are called entrepreneurs 😂

If I was Roman, I wouldn’t agree to sell the club seeing where I won’t get any money. I’d rather sell it for 1 pound or hold it till it bleeds into the ground. And I’m a huge chelsea fan btw.

Obviously he did not make a large enough contribution to the British conservative party.

Like they did not know!

This is getting ridiculous. Ufff

Shearer summed it up magnificently 🤣

I find this very unfair to punish the man just because he is Russian

WHY

Is he related to Marina?

So if my friend commits a crime does that mean I am a criminal too?

For the same reason Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Tchaikovsky and the works of other Russian authors and musicians are being banned. If a "civilized" country like Germany can burn books and destroy art, no reason the West today can't take up that legacy.

The UK and America did the same to irac if my memory serves me correctly

Why weren’t assets seized?

So we are against our assets being nationalised in Russia, however……

Abramovich is a good person, he is and was worried about necessities of many people helping them. He doesn't like explore his good actions to promote himself. Let him in peace.

This is ridiculous.

1:08 lmao thanks for your two cents

I always admired Shearer as a player, but his ignorance of the facts regarding Ukraine Neo Nazis, the fact that they have killed 14,000 in the Donbass, in the shelling of their own people for refusing to stop speaking Russian. This war started by Ukraine in 2014 and Britain remained silent

You people are ridiculous!! What's going on is criminal!! You are defrauding him!!

Why you didn't arrest him

I don't understand why they are banning the sale of tickets. But I guess it might prevent a case of COVID or two.