Tuchel wants to focus on sports while Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich faces sanctions over Ukraine crisis

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who is Russian, is one of the oligarch’s facing potential sanctions from the United Kingdom in response to the Ukraine crisis. Amid calls to seize his assets and to bar him from owning the club, manager Thomas Tuchel believes the players should rather focus on football. 

The Blues play Liverpool in the EFL final on Sunday. 

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Abramovich’s future with Chelsea is uncertain. He is the eleventh-richest in Russia and has owned the Premier League club since 2003. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, the Russian billionaire and his ownership has been a subject of discussion in the British Parliament.

While the 55-year-old has not been sanctioned so far, Tuchel said that the uncertainty and Russia’s attack on Ukraine are proving a distraction ahead of the Carabao final.

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“We should not pretend this is not an issue. The situation in general for me and for my staff, the players, is horrible. Nobody expected this. It’s pretty unreal, like I said it’s clouding our minds, it’s clouding our excitement towards the final,” the Chelsea boss told reporters. 

“And it brings huge uncertainty, much more to all the people and families who are actually in the moment more involved than us.”

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He further extended his best wishes, regards and thoughts with the families suffering. 

Not making a direct comment on Abramovich, he said that the team’s focus is the sport. 

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“There are so many uncertainties around the situation of our club and of the situation in the UK, with scenarios like this, that it makes no sense if I comment on it. We are aware of it, we have not maybe so much inside information as you might think.” 

“But I think it’s also the right from the team, the staff, and I include myself, to be maybe not political, to do sports and to focus on sports,” Tuchel said.