Chelsea’s bank account has been temporarily suspended by Barclays in the wake of Roman Abramovich being sanctioned by the UK government.
The club’s credit cards have also temporarily been suspended.
The reason behind the suspension is that the bank requires time to assess the licence Chelsea have been given to continue football-related activities, Skysports reports.
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Chelsea are hopeful the suspension will be lifted shortly.
The UK government on Thursday
gave Chelsea a licence to continue with football-related activities after Abramovich had “his assets frozen, a prohibition on transactions with UK individuals and businesses, a travel ban and transport sanctions” imposed on him.
The sanctions are intended to stop the 55-year-old from making any money in the UK, but the government has granted Chelsea a special licence to allow fixtures to be fulfilled, staff to be paid and existing ticket holders to attend matches.
However, Chelsea cannot offer new contracts to players or staff, conduct any transfer business or sell new tickets to matches as things stand.
Chelsea are scheduled to play Newcastle United, live on Sky Sports, on Sunday.
“Barclays suspending Chelsea’s bank account is going to have serious, serious repercussions for the club.
“The issue Barclays have got is that the bank account is in the name of Chelsea but the owner is still Roman Abramovich, who has been sanctioned by the UK Government.
“Nobody in the UK is allowed to do any business with Abramovich.
Chelsea have a special licence to carry on their football-related activities but Barclays have to be sure they are comfortable taking the risk of carrying on providing banking services to Chelsea. Most banks are very risk-averse.
“They do not want to do business with people that have been sanctioned by a government. Just because the UK Government say Chelsea can continue to carry on and play games it doesn’t mean Barclays are going to be comfortable with that arrangement.
It’s well within their rights to withdraw banking services completely. But this is a temporary suspension and Chelsea are hopeful the suspension will be lifted shortly.
“The bank will want to be sure that Chelsea are spending the money on what the government have allowed them to.”
