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The same money that propelled to the pinnacle of world football also propelled rockets into a maternity hospital in Mariupol, while women gave birth in the basement.That fact is inescapable.  
  
Any hurt that may be felt by Chelsea followers, any sense of injustice, or misconceptions about who the victims are here, has to be viewed in that context.Your inability to buy a shirt at the club shop is not the issue.  
  
Nor are the trophies, the good times, the transformative presence of at your club. We know Chelsea's end of the deal, what it got out of Russian energy.  
And it's time to pay the bill.  Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned by the UK government The future of the Blues has been left up in the air with club activities severely limited RELATED ARTICLES   
  
  
  
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You are not hunkering down in a basement, waving off your wife and children as they struggle to the border, or learning how to fire a semi-automatic rifle in the hope of repelling a column of tanks. You are not digging a friend out of the rubble, or Platinum Aluminium burying your dead.  
  
Your life expectancy will not alter.  
At worst, your team may end up as Queens Park Rangers for a few years, but it's all relative.  
Chelsea fans of a certain age will remember that anyway. It's a myth that Chelsea were a small club before Abramovich's arrival - they won the European Cup-Winners' Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 1998 alone - but the years from 1975 to 1989 contained three relegations and three promotions.  
  
They've had it worse than it's going to get now.Against this, it is some irony that on Sunday, a fully sanctioned Stamford Bridge will host Newcastle, who are owned by the Public Investment Fund of a country that is involved in a war in Yemen that has killed 100,000, displaced four million and left a further 24 million in need of aid.Saudi Arabia, however, are our friends.  
  
And our friends only kill the right people; or rather the brown people, and they are just numbers on a page. This government tries to help its allies buy English football clubs, through back-channels.If this had happened a year ago, maybe the PIF of Saudi Arabia would be considered exactly the right folk to take Chelsea from Abramovich, and their representatives would be lobbying the Prime Minister to that effect. The inability to buy merchandise or maintaining the good times at the club is not the main issueSo it doesn't pay to pick at too many threads.  
  
This is not the sudden discovery of a moral compass. Abramovich has used the plunder of Russian energy resources to buy Chelsea, the way it has also bought London real estate and raised billions on the London stock exchange. What is undeniable, however, is that Abramovich, the oligarchs and the war in Ukraine are linked.Not just because Abramovich has an interest in a firm believed to provide steel for Russian tanks, or even because this is a war about the supply of energy to the West which is key to his portfolio, but because it is impossible to separate the gains of Russian money and influence from the sporting success it has also bought.For instance, at first glance it may seem harsh that the Russian driver Nikita Mazepin should be fired by his Formula One team Haas.  
  
He may take legal action, and no doubt Abramovich will do the same. Yet Nikita is the son of Dmitry Mazepin, a Russian oligarch who has thrived under Vladimir Putin. He was also part-owner of Haas's main sponsors, fertiliser company Uralkali.Now it transpires Mazepin also transferred his interest in motorsport company Hitech Grand Prix, which is British-based, just nine days before the invasion of Ukraine.  
And that may be coincidence; or it may be because he knew what would happen and what the consequence could be for Russian ownership.Abramovich made similar manoeuvres either with trusts or pledges of donation, all to keep his assets out of government grasp.  
  
So, it is becoming increasingly difficult not to see Russia's government, its foreign policy and its interest in sport as one giant spider's web. And while the athletes and fans are not the centre, they must realise they are trapped in one of the many strands.But let's not pretend.  
The sponsors now running for cover, the season-ticket holders condemning Abramovich as if suddenly enlightened, are an insult to the intelligence. One might as well feign surprise that cigarettes cause cancer. Really, you thought because tobacco is a leaf they were one of your five a day?Everyone knew where Abramovich's money came from, and whose benevolence was required.  
  
He was a known ally of Putin and Putin was nobody's friend. It was all tolerated because of the money. The government tolerated it, the banks tolerated it, the City tolerated it, football tolerated it, the fans tolerated it, the media tolerated it.  The same money that propelled Chelsea to the top of football also propelled rockets into a maternity hospitalThere is no golden age of football club ownership, just as there was no time when all businesses were pure and ethically run. The new bosses are not so much different to the old.  
  
Just don't insult us by being outraged now; by tearing up your contracts now; by pointing out the bad guy now.Just as cigarettes carry a warning MAY CAUSE CANCER so Russian money came with the knowledge MAY CAUSE A LIMITED WAR IN EUROPE.  
We just hoped it wouldn't happen while mainlining Russian gas and celebrating the good times. And Three, Nike and all Chelsea's other partners were no different.So is this Chelsea dead? Almost certainly not. Already, on Thursday night, there were negotiations with government around the financial terms of what is allowed.  
  
Already, many of the possible buyers continued to express their interest. Just as Chelsea were deemed culturally significant and were allowed to continue trading, so their sale is necessary for continued competition.It cannot be that we emote wildly over Bury, but happily let Chelsea go to the wall.  
The club and their fans are no different to those of Bury or Derby. They need our consideration, too.There are always wild, hot takes. Chelsea's players should refuse to set foot on the pitch or wear the shirt; that was one.  
  
And what good would that serve? In times of war we used to send young men to fight. Now we demand they refuse to play Norwich, away.What would be the point of harming the Premier League, the Champions League and the FA Cup in this way?  
What difference would it make, really? Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the West to implement a no-fly zone over his country to prevent further Russian attacks. We're not doing that, because it would start World War III, but if you think anyone's going to Middlesbrough in the sixth round next Saturday...  Everyone tolerated Abramovich despite his close ties with Vladimir Putin due to his moneyWhat happens next?  
  
It is not business as usual at Chelsea, but nor is it the end. The club must be set up so no money goes to Abramovich, either from commercial revenues or even their sale. That can be done. A trust can be created that collects the money Chelsea makes - whether from the sale of a player or the sale of a meat and potato pie - and sits there until the club are sold, when it is transferred to the new account.The problem is the same people who may end up overseeing this process are the sort who have been unable to find a naming rights sponsor for the London Stadium almost a decade after the London Olympics ended.Why would Abramovich sell if he can't get the money?  
  
Well, he's owed £1.5billion and his only chance of claiming that is to sanction a deal when there is still some worth in the company. He may win that back in court, or even receive it when this war is over. He may just choose to write it off.No route is certain, but it makes more sense than allowing the club to rot; no players in, maybe none out, as the asset dwindles in value and loses its elite status.  
It makes no sense to either side, Government or Abramovich, for Chelsea to end up in administration. The only way forward is for both sides to sell and perhaps for Abramovich to waive the proceeds.Yet beware agendas. The dramatic graphics that accompanied news of the Abramovich sanction were accompanied by the logo OLIGARCH TASKFORCE - this from a Government that took money from these men until it became unconscionable.Meanwhile, Tracey Crouch, champion of the fan-led review, continued to bang the drum for regulation. 'The situation at Chelsea does demonstrate, yet again, why we need an independent regulator with really tough owners' tests,' she said.  
  
So, Newcastle next then, Tracey? Er, Tracey? Tracey? RELATED ARTICLES   
  
  
  
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