Honestly, I'm not sure. But I wouldn't imagine they could write the debt off. It would have to sit in their accounts. Similarly, they couldn't spend the repayments as technically they could be called in if sanctions were lifted.
Could go south in the not to distant future for Chelsea regardless of the stewardship. No Russian money means doesn't matter where it comes from they will not be able to accept anything coming directly or indirectly from Abramovic and/or Russia. If they can't get his money to stay afloat plus any dodgy Russian sponsorship deals there is not a snowballs chance in hell that club can afford to pay the bills they currently pay for long: "The latest set of accounts from Chelsea show that last season they spent £333million on wages". They have some saleable assets in the form of players that might keep the wolf from the door for a while and a lot of very good young players in their youth teams who could keep them ticking along if they have to sell their stars but if Roman goes their chances of top 4 go out the window in the medium to long term.
Interesting article on ESPN from December last year, they announced post tax losses of £145m but their gates only went down £40m due to covid (and had an increase in TV money of £30m) while reportedly making a profit of £27.9m on transfers! So theses losses are coming elsewhere with the club announcing: "Chelsea FC PLC is supported by Fordstam Limited, a company owned by Roman Abramovich, and the accounts state "the company is reliant on Fordstam Limited for its continued support" and that will be the case for the "foreseeable future." https://www.espn.co.uk/football/che...loss-of-145-6-million-for-last-financial-year
I'd be careful what we wish for in this regard. We ourselves are always going to be vulnerable to this kind of scrutiny too given the source of our new found wealth could be questioned on many levels. They pick and choose which need to be investigated, and no doubt ours will be top of the list if there is a souring of relations with Saudi. I personally don't have a problem with Abramovich's money being in Chelsea - you won't hurt Putin by damaging Abramovich. How he acquired his assets originally like the other oligarchs is probably less than savoury. However how he acquired his wealth was just Putin making those oligarchs sell those assets back to Russia - which was perfectly correct and legal. I'm not interested in baseless accusations from our ****er MP's about what these oligarchs do for Putin now. Either put up or shut up in that regard. If they had something legally enforceable we'd already know about it. This idea we freeze Abramovich's assets because he has not openly condemned the situation in Ukraine is ****ing stupid. Anyway isn't Roman the only one trying to help according to the Ukrainians. Why are we going to sanction the guy who is trying to get what we all want, peace?
