The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has transcended borders on European soil. After the multiple attacks by the Russian government, led by Vladimir Putin, other countries in the old continent have been forced to take strong sanctions against officials and companies from that country, all in order to send a message of support to Ukraine.
In sports, this situation has not been unrelated, since Chelsea in England, a team owned by the Russian Romanian Abramovich, finds himself between a rock and a hard place as a result of this conflict.
Why? Although the relationship between the Russian businessman and the United Kingdom is not the best, the war between the two nations has given rise to it becoming tense, so much so that the Parliament of this country would have prohibited the entry of this man to English soil and, in addition, he would have made a call to investigate him and seize his assets in the country, forcing him to sell Chelsea.
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Abramóvich no longer frequents England for several years after an internal conflict. The last time he was seen in the field of Stamford Bridge stadium was last November, on the occasion of a family trip.
The situation worsened after Chris Bryant, Labor MP, revealed a document from the Home Office in 2019 in which it was reported that Abramovich is under investigation for alleged links to the Russian state.
“Abramóvich continues to be a matter of interest to the country due to his links with Russia and his association with corrupt activities,” Bryant said reading the aforementioned document.
“An example of this is that he admitted in a trial to have paid for political influence. The Government is focused on making sure that those individuals who are linked to illicit funding and criminal activity cannot settle in the UK, and we will use all our tools, including immigration law, to prevent this,” he added.
Bryan was clear and emphasized that the Russian owner could not continue to be part of Chelsea, because nothing has been done in this investigation. “Should I still have Abramovich a football club in this country? Shouldn’t we be thinking about seizing his assets and making sure that people who have had the same visa as him do not engage in criminal activities? ”, He sentenced.
Given this, the Russian has always stated that his relations with the Russian government, headed by Vladimir Putin, are null.
The team has been “perturbed” by this tension
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel acknowledged on Friday that his football club, owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovichis especially “disturbed” by the situation since Thursday in Ukraine due to the Russian attack.
“We can’t pretend it’s not a problem. The situation in general, for me and for my coaching staff, for everyone at Cobham (the club’s training centre), for the players, is horrible,” Tuchel told reporters.
“Nobody expected this. It’s very unreal, as I said it disturbs our spirits, it overshadows our excitement ahead of Sunday’s League Cup final against Liverpool, he added.
Tuchel refused to pronounce more precisely on the case of Abramovich: “There are so many uncertainties around the situation of our club and the situation in the United Kingdom (…) that it would not make any sense for me to comment on it,” he declared, asking to be able to “concentrate on the sport and not do politics”.
As it is news of global interest, all content on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine will be freely accessible to our readers on all SEMANA digital platforms. Follow the minute by minute of what is happening.
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:quality(50)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/semana/2NMGGIIXOJEWTMC3Y7C3IOF4LE.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "Chelsea, between a rock and a hard place due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine")
