Russia-Ukraine War: Chelsea, Abramovich Under Fire For Statement| DETAILS
English Premier League club, Chelsea and its billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich are under fire for their statement on the club’s ownership amid the global outrage over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 55-year-old business magnate, Abramovich was banned from living in UK following a revelation by Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, that he is one of the 35 oligarchs who are enablers of President Vladimir Putin.
For many, the development meant it would only be noble of the Russian to step down from office.
Abramovich, however released a statement on his ownership of Chelsea, revealing he is “giving trustees of Chelsea’s charitable foundation the stewardship and care” of the Blues.
The announcement denotes the Russian billionaire remains the club’s owner, despite calls for him to give up the club following his alleged involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Manchester United and Liverpool idols,Gary Alexander Neville and Jamie Carragher have reacted to the move, expressing their dissatisfaction.
Assailing Abramovich’s resolve, Neville stated the politician should not have made a statement, adding he has only left more raging questions.
”One of the smartest things that I think Roman Abramovich has done over the last 20 years is not to speak, not to make statements
“Because the statement that he made last night left more questions than answers.
“If anything I thought it was, to be fair, a cowardly approach to sort of throw a hospital pass to good people on the charitable and foundation board, when it’s quite clear he runs the club with Marina [Granovskaia, club director] and [technical and performance advisor] Petr Cech.
“There’s no way that the charitable foundation of Chelsea is running the club and I’m not quite sure why Roman Abramovich made that statement.
“If he wanted to make a statement of any note, it would have been whether he supports the war in Ukraine or he actually doesn’t support the war in Ukraine.”
Carragher posited the club simply ” embarrassed themselves”.
“I don’t think they have handled it really well. With a couple of statements, they have put out, I think it has been really poor and they have let themselves down badly.
“I don’t think they did that well either.
“It’s not worked out well for them at all, I think they have embarrassed themselves. They should have been a lot stronger in what they said, and regarding Roman Abramovich passing on to Chelsea trustees, that’s not him relinquishing the club, stewardship is not ownership. It is completely different because he is still in charge, he is still running it, which is fine.
“But to not actually mention in his initial statement what was going on in Ukraine, I thought was really poor.”