The hierarchy had spent the week hoping for positive developments on the club’s sale, given the drip-feed of interest emerging from around the globe and being aired daily in the media. Thomas Tuchel and his players were on a coach heading 150 miles north east to Norwich ahead of this evening’s Premier League fixture at Carrow Road, oblivious to the fact their world was about to be turned upside down. They had no clue this was coming.

The squad only became aware via social media alerts, or as their phones trilled with messages from concerned friends and family. Likewise, there was no guidance or reassurance offered in advance from on high because, in truth, everyone had been caught on the hop.

This was no way to celebrate the club’s 117th birthday.

Abramovich is one of seven oligarchs sanctioned.

He had been identified by the UK government as a “pro-Kremlin oligarch”. The updated Consolidated List of financial sanctions targets cited him as having had “a close relationship (with Vladimir Putin) for decades”, something the oligarch has always been at pains to deny. Abramovich had apparently received “preferential treatment from and concessions from Putin and the government of Russia”. All his UK-based assets had been frozen, including the football club he had bankrolled to two Champions League wins, five Premier League titles and, less than a month ago, a Club World Cup across almost 19 years of ownership.

The Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries acknowledged that the news casts “some uncertainty” on the club’s immediate future.

However, in recognition that Chelsea are a cultural and community asset, General Licence INT/2022/1327076 had been granted by HM Treasury until the end of May, through the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), that would allow the club to undertake activities that would otherwise be prohibited by financial sanctions.

In other words, the club can continue to carry out football business, pay staff and fulfil fixtures without undermining the impact of sanctions on Abramovich. The licence should permit Chelsea’s men’s and women’s teams to complete their current seasons, though not necessarily in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

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Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had his assets frozen by the UK government on Thursday morning (Photo: Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
It is safe to assume that overnight stays in luxury hotels are off the table.

The knock-on effects of the sanctions will also see Stamford Bridge devoid of away supporters.

Main shirt sponsor Three said today it was reviewing its partnership with the club, as did Zapp, another Chelsea sponsor.

Obviously, all of this pales into insignificance given the suffering of Ukrainians at present at the hands of the Russian invasion. This is all being played out to that dreadful backdrop.

Here though, The Athletic breaks down the Russia Regulations licence granted by the government in an attempt to demonstrate how Chelsea must operate for the foreseeable future.

Under the terms of the licence, the club are permitted to pay:

4.1. Remuneration, allowances and pensions of all employees of the Club, including the wages of Players and coaching staff employed by the Club. 4.2. Fees, dividends or other allowances to directors of the Club, payable under obligations which pre-date the date of this licence and are due in the period of this licence, but not any fees, dividends or other allowances to the DP.

Chelsea’s annual wage bill, as listed in their last submitted accounts, was £333 million. The club employs around 1,000 staff, either at Stamford Bridge or at their training ground in the Surrey town of Cobham, south of London, with others brought in part-time on match days.

Under the government’s special licence, the club should still be able to meet their payroll commitments, ensuring all staff – including the players and coaches of the men’s and women’s teams, plus medical, administrative and security personnel – will continue to pick up their salaries, as will any directors due a wage from the club, as long as there are sufficient cash reserves to meet those costs.

The DP, ‘designated person’, mentioned in clause 4.2 above is Abramovich.

4.3. Reasonable fees or other costs directly related to ongoing regular maintenance of the Club, including: rates, Council tax (or other taxes), insurance, ongoing maintenance and inspection to ensure safety and security of its site (and buildings) but excluding new capital works or refurbishment.

This, again, will allow the club to continue functioning day to day by meeting obligations to the local council and insurers. No new works would be permitted, either at the stadium or training ground.

4.4. Reasonable costs of travel to and from Fixtures (or for the purposes of training or practice) by any of the Club teams for players and essential staff (including the reasonable cost of any travel company making such arrangements and necessary security staff or contractors) not exceeding the value of £20,000 per game per Club team.

This is where the practicalities of the sanctions properly kick in.

The £20,000 limit would presumably prevent Chelsea flying to, or staying overnight at, any of their remaining away games in the Premier League, unless those trips have been paid for in advance. To put that into some context, a return trip by private jet for domestic travel for a party of around 50 people might normally cost around double that amount.

Chelsea would normally travel with players, technical and coaching staff, medics and security, and would often incorporate an overnight stay. They will have to cut back appreciably to fall within the new guidelines.

That said, plenty of top-flight clubs in England travel to and from fixtures by train, or even coach — as Chelsea have done with the fairly short distance involved with tonight’s Norwich fixture. There are means of cutting back budgets and coping, for all that the team face relatively long domestic journeys to Middlesbrough, Leeds, Everton and Manchester, to play United, before the end of the campaign.

More worrying would be the threat to logistics for any Champions League away trips.

It seems likely that the costs for next week’s trip to Lille, in northern France, for the second leg of their last 16 tie have already been paid, meaning the team can fly out and stay in their pre-booked hotel. But should they overcome the Ligue 1 champions – and they are 2-0 up from the first leg – and are then drawn against a non-English club in the quarter-finals, say in Munich, Madrid (Bayern and Real are already through to the last eight) or Turin, then would their trip fall within the £20,000 limit? Or would they need to take a radically-reduced staff, travel by coach rather than plane or even resort to commercial flights to and from their destination?

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Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic celebrate Chelsea’s first leg victory over Lille in the Champions League (Photo: Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Chelsea have never before had to contemplate resorting to budget airlines. Being pitted against a fellow Premier League side in next Friday’s Champions League draw, with Liverpool and Manchester City already in the hat, might actually now appear appealing.

Regardless, players used to the best preparation conceivable may now endure something of a reality check, not least in the standard of hotels in which they stay on overnight trips.

The government, however, said they may allow some flexibility when it comes to the £20,000 limit for away games in Europe.

4.5. Reasonable costs necessary for the purposes of the Club hosting Fixtures at its home ground or grounds, including but not limited to the costs of: 4.5.1. Security 4.5.2. Catering 4.5.3. Stewarding Not exceeding the value of £500,000 per Fixture per Club Team.

This technically allows Chelsea to meet police costs for home matches, allowing them to secure safety certificates to fulfil home games at Stamford Bridge, and pay catering staff on match days up to the specified amount.

The catering budget of £500,000 a match only allows for a budget of £17.85 per fan for the 28,000 season ticket holders and would surely impact upon what would be available on corporate packages.

4.6. Inter-club payments to discharge obligations which existed before 10 March 2022 under player loan arrangements. 4.7. Inter-club payments to discharge obligations which existed before 10 March 2022 under player sale arrangements.

This would ensure Chelsea can still meet any obligations to other clubs over player purchases. It is unclear how much money is outstanding on incoming deals but, for example, Inter Milan received an initial £18.7 million last summer on the £97.5 million sale of Romelu Lukaku to the reigning European champions. The rest was due to be paid over the ensuing 12 months, meaning some of that money is likely still to be outstanding.

The club accounts for 2020-21 indicate that over £104.5 million was owed to trade creditors within the next 12 months, and over £58.6 million due after more than one year. That would suggest money is still owed on the deals that brought in Kai Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen, Edouard Mendy from Rennes, Ben Chilwell from Leicester City and Timo Werner from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2020. There may be loan fees involved, too, due to Atletico Madrid over Saul Niguez’s 12-month move. All these obligations can be met, again, as long as there is cash there to pay them.

Clearly, no further incoming transfer business will now be permitted while the sanctions remain in place. As an extension of that, the club would appear unable to offer new contracts to players from now in, too, meaning the likes of Antonio Rudiger, Cesar Azpilicueta and Andreas Christensen may well become free agents when their current deals expire on 30 June.

5. Under this licence, subject to the conditions below, persons who purchased (i) tickets for a Fixture or (ii) a Club season-ticket, prior to 10 March 2022 may: 5.1. Attend Fixtures and purchase refreshments while attending these Fixtures. 5.2. Make payments under contractual or other obligations entered into prior to 10 March 2022 in respect of season tickets.

Those attempting to buy tickets online today for the FA Cup quarter-final at Middlesbrough eventually reached a point in the process where a message flashed up in red on screen: “Tickets for the Middlesbrough away FA Cup match will not go on sale today as planned. Further updates will follow in due course”. In effect, future ticket sales that might have benefited Chelsea financially (and, therefore, technically filtered back to Abramovich) have been suspended.

Season ticket holders who have already purchased their tickets for the campaign can continue to attend games and, for what it is worth, purchase refreshments when attending those fixtures. However, no additional ticket sales will be permitted.

In practice, Stamford Bridge will not be able to welcome away supporters beyond Sunday’s visit of Newcastle given those ticket sales would fall outside the season ticket remit. Should Chelsea overcome Boro and progress into an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley then there may be the opportunity for the Football Association to sell tickets to Chelsea supporters for the game (and, potentially, the final to follow) as long as the money did not find its way back to the club. The same might apply for future Champions League ties via UEFA, though both the FA and European football’s governing body are in uncharted territory on that issue. They will be exploring their options even now.

6. Under this licence, subject to the conditions below: 6.1 Persons may pay to the Club payments to discharge existing obligations under player loan or sale arrangements. 6.2 Relevant bodies may pay to the Club revenue for broadcast licensing related to any Fixtures and any performance fee. 6.3 The Club may receive funds, which must be frozen, in accordance with paragraphs 5, 6.1 and 6.2 above. 6.4 Broadcasters may broadcast any Fixtures involving the Club.

Money owed to Chelsea, who sold almost £100 million worth of talent last summer and will also be due loan fees on players lent out, can still be received. Likewise, they will still be due broadcasting revenues. The team’s games can still be televised. However, the licence stipulates that any money coming into the club via those sources would be frozen. The inference of that is that the club, as of now, must function day to day on its current cash reserves rather than rely on any influx of transfer or broadcasting revenue due.

6.5 Third parties who purchased or produced Club Merchandise prior to 10 March 2022 are permitted to sell existing stocks of Club Merchandise, on the condition that no funds or other financial benefits are made available to the Club or to the DP.

So the club can sell existing merchandise stock from their club shops or online, but cannot then restock to maintain supplies. Again, any money raised would be frozen rather than filtering back, through the club, to Abramovich.

The club megastore at Stamford Bridge did not open on Thursday with signs taped to the door indicated it would be closed “for today until further notice”.

Staff at the hotel at Stamford Bridge have also been told they can take no new bookings until the foreseeable.

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The Chelsea megastore at Stamford Bridge was closed today
So can Abramovich actually still sell the club while it is under sanction?

The suggestion is he would still potentially be able to push through a sale, though he would have to prove that he will not benefit from any of the proceeds.

Given Abramovich has already indicated that he intends to given all net proceeds of a sale to “the victims of the war in Ukraine”, that would suggest there is scope for a deal still to be secured with one of the interested parties.

Accounts would be closely monitored by government officials to ensure no breaches of the sanctions occur.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “We would have to grant a further licence. I think it is fair to say the government is open to the sale of the club, but…currently, it would require another licence and that would require a further conversation with the Treasury (finance ministry).

“The principle has been to mitigate the impact on fans…these measures are designed to punish those close to Putin.”

It seems inconceivable now that the oligarch’s original asking price, believed to be in excess of £3 billion, will be met.

Members of the Chelsea hierarchy are expected to meet with government officials later on Thursday to discuss the implications of the sanctions.