Roman Abramovich BANNED as Chelsea director, Blues financial crisis eased, Lukaku ‘to take PAY CUT for Inter transfer’

Chelsea lifeline

Chelsea have been handed a £110million cash lifeline — to ensure they can finish the season.

The Government’s decision to ease their financial stranglehold on the Blues came as sanction-hit Russian owner Roman Abramovich was banned by the Premier League.

World and European club champions Chelsea were in danger of plunging into administration after the Government’s  stringent licence limited funds to meet their £28m monthly wage bill and all other outgoings.

But MPs yesterday revealed that two days of negotiations with club chiefs had resulted in a revised licence which will now allow the Blues to access previously FROZEN television and prize money.

Chelsea are permitted to use all the  potential £35m in TV income from the Prem and Uefa until the end of the season plus all prize money they are due from domestic and European competitions.

They are set to pocket £39m from the Prem if they stay in third place — and up to £36m if they retain their Champions League crown.

Blues owe huge transfer money

Chelsea still owe Inter Milan up to £71m for Romelu Lukaku.

That is on top of the £100m or so the Blues were due to pay out over the course of this season in instalments on previous transfers.

But Chelsea’s canny business in the player trading market means they were also in line to receive £167m from other clubs during 2021-22, according to the last accounts of Roman Abramovich’s holding company.

Chelsea declined to comment on the details of the Lukaku deal.

Some information is available, however, because Inter made it public when they refinanced their massive debts earlier this year.

Publicly-issued documents show that Inter are due to receive the full £95m fee for the August 2021 transfer later this year – but not directly from Chelsea.

Abramovich dating actress

Tycoon Roman Abramovich has been romantically linked to a stunning 25-year-old actress — who has Ukrainian family roots.

The sanctioned oligarch is secretly seeing Alexandra Korendyuk, an entrepreneur and TV star who appeared in Russian show You’re All P***ing Me Off, it is claimed.

Chelsea FC owner Abramovich, 55 — who was yesterday formally disqualified as a director of the club by the Premier League — was linked to Ms Korendyuk by Russian gossip columnist Bozhena Rynska.

The same journalist first revealed that dad-of-seven Abramovich was due to wed his third wife, Dasha Zhukova  — who he was married to from 2008 to 2018.

Blues plea to government

Chelsea have submitted a number of requests to the government to lift some of the sanctions placed on the club this week.

Owner Roman Abramovich had his assets frozen on Thursday, preventing Chelsea from conducting business activity.

One of Chelsea’s biggest concerns with the sanctions is the fact it bans them from conducting transfer-related activity, including the renewal of players’ contracts.

Chelsea were given a special license to continue playing but the club want changes made to it, according to The Telegraph.

A key amendment is to allow contracts to be renewed with the likes of Antonio Rudiger, Cesar Azpilicueta and Andreas Christensen entering the final few months of their deals.

Howe issues Chelsea caution

Chelsea face off against Newcastle on Sunday, with reports they are the brink of administration and face an uncertain future.

With the UK government placing sanctions on owner Roman Abramovich, the club has been left in turmoil.

But Toon boss Eddie Howe doesn’t believe that will distract the Blues on the pitch.

“I don’t think it will have any bearing on Chelsea and how they play,” Howe said.

“We can’t change our preparation in any way. I’ll be watching Chelsea historically and trying to build a game plan to try to go there and win.

“I don’t expect anything on the pitch to be any different.”

Keeping Saul

Chelsea will do everything in their power to keep on-loan midfielder Saul Niguez, according to reports, if UK government sanctions allow them.

The Atletico Madrid midfielder has started to turn the corner at Stamford Bridge after a disastrous start to life at Stamford Bridge.

And now it’s believed the Blues want to keep hold of the Spaniard, with Thomas Tuchel recently admitting he had turned things around in England.

He said: “I think he will be an important player for us and I hope so as well. He has showed what he can do with his abilities.

“I see more confidence in him with each game, he is in good shape and his adaptation to the way we play has gone further from before.

“You can see this in his game now. He is more open, he understands the language better now and these are all important things to consider when talking about Saul and how much he has improved recently.

“He is having much more impact on games than he was doing at the beginning of the season and this is very important.”

Werner might leave, says Merson

Timo Werner could be sacrificed amidst Chelsea’s financial woes, according to Arsenal legend Paul Merson.

Merson told Sportskeeda: “Chelsea are in a bit of a situation at the moment. Rudiger’s gone anyway – you don’t refuse to sign a contract and lose eighty grand a week for nothing.

“When players don’t sign contracts, you can take it for granted that they’ll leave more often than not.

“Where can you take Chelsea from here? They’re the champions of Europe and they’ve won everything.

“Whoever buys Chelsea at this point will probably just lose money. They’ll have to start selling players – if they can get their money back for Timo Werner, they’ll probably sell him too.”

Chelsea fan’s disappointment

A 70-year-old Chelsea fan is walking away from the club after 62 YEARS of support over the Roman Abramovich ownership crisis.

Pat, who was born around the corner from Stamford Bridge, has instead chosen to get behind League Two Sutton United.

peaking through tears, Pat told talkSPORT: “I’ve been a Chelsea fan for 62 years, I started supporting Chelsea in the 50s and I’m absolutely…

“Listen, what some Chelsea fans have been doing is unforgivable. We’ve got to stand up and be counted but I’ve now, myself and my twin brother, we’ve walked away from Chelsea.

“This is true, he went out yesterday and he bought two shirts for Sutton United.

“He phoned me up and said, ‘I’ve got two shirts here’, and asked them who they were for and he said ‘Sutton United. We can’t carry on supporting Chelsea”.

Luky escape

Romelu Lukaku is prepared to take a wage cut to leave Chelsea and return to Inter Milan, according to reports.

Gazzetta dello Sport claim that the Belgium star is willing to leave the Blues, where he is paid £10.5million-per-year, for what the Serie A giants previously paid him – £7.5million.

However, the move rests on three factors.

A sale of the club needs to go through, a loan offer has to be accepted and the striker has to lower his wage demands.

Hyundai suspends Chelsea sponsorship

Hyundai have become the latest sponsor to pull out of their Chelsea deal.

The Blues are in crisis mode after owner Roman Abramovich was hit with sanctions from the UK government, which have plunged the club into financial uncertainty.

Now their sleeve sponsors have suspended ‘marketing and communications activities’ with the west Londoners, according to the Daily Mail.

Next season would have been the final year of their £50million deal, which has seen Abramovich’s club make £10m per season.

Hyundai released the following statement: “In the current circumstances, we have taken the decision to suspend our marketing and communication activities with the Club until further notice.”

Goldstein part of Boehly/Wyss consortium

Jonathan Goldstein has joined Todd Boehly and Hansjorg Wyss in their bid to buy Chelsea, according to reports.

Boehly – who is a part-owner of the LA Lakers and LA Dodgers – announced his interest in buying the Blues along with Swiss billionaire Wyss last week.

And Goldstein, who has worked with Boehly for eight years, will now support the bid, according to Sky News.

The London-based property developer is co-founder and CEO of Cain International, which has assets worth £8.2billion.

His personal wealth is not known.

Goldstein is said to be a Tottenham fan and tried to buy Spurs in 2014 through Cain.

U18’s doing the club proud

It’s not all doom and gloom at Chelsea.

After all, their talented U18s have reached the final of the Premier League Cup.

The Blues youth side defeated Stoke City 5-1 – with Eton College genius Tudor Mendel-Idowu netting twice.

Graffiti removal at Stamford Bridge

Workers are painting over graffiti outside Stamford Bridge after walls were defaced by angry fans.

The writing read: “Europe is funding the war – not CFC.”

It comes after Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government, freezing his assets – including Chelsea.

Abramovich had his assets frozen due to Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine and his ties to President Vladimir Putin.

As a result of the sanctions, Chelsea cannot sell home or away match tickets.

Chelsea also cannot buy or sell players, and they cannot renew players’ contracts – running the risk of losing three key centre backs.

Who is Muhsin Bayrak?

Muhsin Bayrak, 50, is a Turkish billionaire who made his money as Chairman of own company AB Group Holding, which has invested in tourism, cryptocurrency and construction.

There are suggestions that Roman Abramovich may have travelled to Turkey last week – before sanctions were laid – in order to discuss details of the sale to the tycoon.

Bayrak, worth a reported £8bn, has also vowed to ‘fly the Turkish flag in London soon’.

Who is Todd Boehly?

Todd Boehly is the current chairman and CEO of Eldridge Industries – a private investment firm based on the East Coast.

Boehly is part-owner of both the LA Lakers and LA Dodgers and is just one of several interested parties in Chelsea.

The philanthropist will be ready for the fight to win a bidding war, having been part of his school wrestling team which won state tournament titles in 1990 and 1991.

Who is Jamie Reuben?

Jamie Ruben, 34, is worth a casual £12billion and is one of the potential buyers after Chelsea.

His dad and uncle bought a ten per cent stake in Newcastle United last year and he was added to the board of directors.

But Jamie Reuben is a Chelsea fan and would relish the chance to take ownership.

There would be a number of complications due to his mega-rich family’s interest and control at St James’ Park.

Reuben Jr is pals with Boris Johnson, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and Jamie Redknapp and owns a swanky £65million yacht.

Blues fear mass exodus, warns Ferdinand

Rio Ferdinand fears Chelsea’s current chaos could lead to a host of players departing.

Speaking prior to Liverpool’s 2-0 win away at Brighton, the BT Sport pundit claimed that the situation is causing ‘anxiety and fear’.

He said: “If you take it back to the players, that uncertainty leads to anxiety and fear and not knowing is always the worst case scenario and that’s where these players sit.

“There will be players sitting there who are coming out of contracts going ‘there’s no way I’m staying’.

“That could be a driver for a mass exodus of players who are saying we are potentially losing our best players, we could’ve re-signed.

“There are so many questions and moving parts it makes it difficult to really want to commit to a situation like that.”

Sanction changes by DCMS

The new terms will allow the club to utilise payments due from broadcasting companies and any prize money earned to meet its outgoings.

That should see the £28m monthly wage bill covered for the final three months of the campaign.

As reported earlier, the ‘reasonable costs’ section has been amended, allowing them to spend up to £900k to host games at Stamford Bridge.

They are still limited to £20k travel to and from fixtures, which could be extremely difficult for foreign trips.

For now, though, the ban on the club selling seats in addition to the season tickets already sold has not been lifted, although that is also likely to be the subject of further discussion.

Chelsea anticipate 44,000 full houses for both tomorrow’s game with Newcastle and the match against Brentford on April 2, which were both sold out before Thursday’s bombshell.

As Abramovich was handed severe sanctions by the UK government following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the telecommunications giant suspended its £120million shirt sponsorship deal with the West Londoners.

This promoted hundreds of mischievous Blues supporters to post negative comments on the popular consumer review website – in an attempt to scare off future customers.

One person fumed: “Awful company, they try to leave as soon as anything goes bad.”

Another moaned: “No loyalty whatsoever – definitely a brand to miss.”

As the rating of Three UK bombed spectacularly to “87 per cent bad”, the long-standing Danish website decided to halt any new reviews.

More on Abramovich being removed from board

Roman Abramovich has been banned from being director of Chelsea by the Premier League.

Under Prem rules, the disqualification would normally trigger the sale of the named individual’s shareholding “within 28 days”.

But Abramovich has already announced his intention to sell his appointed agents, the US-based Raine Group, having told potential buyers the sale is back on and that they have a deadline of Friday to register their interest.

The Prem will let the process play out without imposing the deadline limit in its regulations.

Abramovich initially wanted upwards of £3bn for his stake in the club he had run since 2003.

But now the sanctions mean Abramovich cannot get his hands on any of the cash and is effectively and unquestionably a “distressed seller”, likely to force the final asking price down even if there is a bidding war.

The latest news means Abramovich must sell Chelsea immediately.

Lukaku and Werner being watched by Barca

Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner have emerged as shock Barcelona targets, with crisis-club Chelsea potentially forced to sell key players.

With the club at risk of plunging into a financial black hole, they may have to let some of their top earners go.

Lukaku is the highest-paid Chelsea player with his £325k-a-week deal while the German ex-RB Leipzig star is fourth on £270k – behind Kai Havertz and N’Golo Kante.

According to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona could look to try and pounce.

Cut-price deals for Lukaku and Werner could be on the cards.

The pair arrived for a combined £145.5million – including a club-record £97.5m to bring the Belgian back to Stamford Bridge.

Change to ‘hosting’ costs at Stamford Bridge

James Robson of the Evening Standard has reported the change in Chelsea’s ‘special licence’ after an appeal.

The ‘reasonable costs’ section appears to have been amended, allowing them to spend up to £900k to host games at Stamford Bridge.

They are still limited to £20k travel to and from fixtures, which could be extremely difficult for foreign trips.

Rangnick comments on the Chelsea

Boss Ralf Rangnick comments on the invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions placed on Chelsea after Roman Abramovich has been banned from being a director.

He said: “Everybody shares the same opinion, that it’s a tragedy what’s happening over there.

“I hope they can find a peaceful solution.

“With all the measures taken politically, it affects the football business and it seems to be logical to me.

“I don’t have enough inside information to speak about Chelsea.

“For me, it’s just a human tragedy, and I hope – in the next days or weeks – they can find a peaceful solution.”

I hope they can find a peaceful solution

Ralf Rangnick

Abramovich no longer director of Chelsea

Roman Abramovich has been BANNED from being a director of Chelsea.

And that means he MUST sell the club immediately.

The stunning development was announced in a Premier League statement issued at lunchtime.

A Prem spokesman said: “Following the imposition of sanctions by the UK Government, the Premier League Board has disqualified Roman Abramovich as a Director of Chelsea Football Club.

“The Board’s decision does not impact on the club’s ability to train and play its fixtures, as set out under the terms of a licence issued by the Government which expires on 31 May 2022.”