Chelsea to make huge Roman Abramovich payment after Premier League sanction

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Roman Abramovich could be in line for another substantial financial windfall from the sale of Chelsea in 2022. The ex-Blues owner offloaded the club for a whopping £2.5billion in 2022 to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, following sanctions imposed on him by the UK government amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine .

Of that sum, £150m was retained to cover the expense of any proceedings related to incidents that occurred prior to the takeover. This includes Chelsea's £10.75m fine from the Premier League earlier this week . The club were slapped with a suspended transfer embargo on first-team activity and a nine-month ban on recruiting academy players for violating Premier League financial regulations in relation to seven transfers.

The Football Association are poised to impose a similar penalty following an alleged 74 rule infringements. It seems the club will avoid a points deduction and pay an additional fine.

This follows the west London outfit also having to fork out an £8.6million fine to UEFA in 2023 due to partial financial information being submitted in historical transactions between 2012 and 2019. They had violated UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Rules.

Chelsea self-reported the financial breaches in each case following the new ownership's takeover from Abramovich. But the £150million looks set to prove more than sufficient to address the violations, with the remaining funds due to go to Abramovich in May 2027.

Nevertheless, the proceeds from the club's sale remain beyond Abramovich's reach for now. Fordstam, owned by Abramovich, received the £2.35bn in 2022, but the money was frozen.

The proceeds from Chelsea's sale were designated for the 'victims of the war in Ukraine '. In a statement prior to the sale, Abramovich said there would be a 'charitable foundation where all net proceeds from the sale will be donated'.

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Prime Minister Keir Starmer has previously called on Abramovich to honour his word. He told the House of Commons in December: "Honour the commitment you made and pay up now, and if you don't, we are prepared to go to court so every penny reaches those whose lives have been torn apart by Putin's illegal war."

The Russian's legal representatives are not willing to surrender without resistance . They insist he is 'fully committed' to donating the money to charity and also criticised the Government's 'politically charged' approach to the matter.

"It is important to emphasise that the funds – although currently frozen – remain the property of Fordstam Limited, which is wholly owned by Mr Abramovich," they recently said.

"The proposal to donate these proceeds was initiated by Mr Abramovich prior to the imposition of sanctions, and he remains fully committed to ensuring that the funds are used for charitable purposes. As such, any donation will be made voluntarily by our clients."

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