Roman Abramovich is one of seven Russian oligarchs to be added to the list of those sanctioned by the UK Government, which compared to other governments around the world, still falls way short of what is expected of them.
However, the sanctions against him have hit a target that really doesn't deserve to be punished as it is, and that is Chelsea Football Club.
The club can no longer sell tickets or merchandise, and it's banned from any player transfers. It has been granted a special licence which will allow fixtures to be played, staff to be paid, and existing ticket holders, mostly season ticket holders, will be allowed to attend matches.
These measures aren't targetting or affecting Roman Abramovich, they're punishing Chelsea for being owned by him, despite the fact that he has already handed off day to day operations of the club to the trustees, and he has committed to sell the club, for which he could well be granted a special licence to do so, on the condition that he himself doesn't benefit in any way from it.
The sad part is that because of these sanctions, the club cannot get any new money into the business, and how long can that realistically continue? Football clubs are not run on goodwill alone.
Without ticket and merchandise sales, the club cannot continue to run long term, and unless something changes very soon, this season could end up being Chelsea Football Club's last one in existence, and all because of the necessity of punishing Vladimir Putin for a war that didn't even need to happen.
