It’s been one hell of a day for Chelsea Football Club given the fresh news about Roman Abramovich and the subsequent freezing of many Chelsea operations.
But a silver lining has appeared in all the doom and gloom, with club legend Cesar Azpilicueta having his contract extended for another year after hitting the 30-game mark for the season.
According to AS, Azpilicueta was set to become a free agent and then switch the Blue of Stamford Bridge for the Red and Blue of Barcelona this summer.
However, following todays news of the UK government setting out sanctions against owner Abramovich, it has thrown The Blues immediate future up in the air and set them into damage limitation mode.
This has caused them to trigger the one-year extension in the Spanish defenders contract.
The sanctions imposed on Abramovich simultaneously means he can no longer sell the club, unless the government do it on his behalf and ensure he doesn’t receive a penny of the proceeds, and Chelsea cannot operate at 100% functionality.
Under the sanctions they can no longer sell any merchandise out of the club store and cannot sell any additional match day tickets, with only season ticket holders set to be allowed to attend games at the Bridge. They are also now unable to get players to sign new contracts and cannot sell or buy players in the transfer market.
However, the government have issued a special license which grants Chelsea the ability to fulfil their football matches for the foreseeable future and pay staff as normal.