Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston has revealed that Chelsea cannot be allowed to operate as “business as usual” after sanctions were imposed on Roman Abramovich.
Few weeks ago, Sales of home tickets and merchandise were stopped, but the club was allowed to continue to operating.
The club owner Abramovich had all his assets frozen by the UK Government following his country’s invasion on Ukraine.
The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust (CST) said it believed more changes to the sanctions needed to be made “as not to punish supporters”.
“We’ve got to be careful of making sure there isn’t any incremental new revenue generation,” said Huddleston.
The government’s intervention was intended to prevent Russian businessman Abramovich from making any money from Chelsea and his attempt to sell the Premier League club was halted.
Abramovich put the club up for sale on 2 March, five days after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The initial sanctions – outlined in a special licence which allowed the west London club to operate – prevented any tickets being sold for Chelsea matches.
But changes to the licence last week allowed Chelsea to sell tickets to away games, cup matches and fixtures involving the women’s team.
Under the changed licence, proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to the Premier League and then be distributed to the relevant party.
“We have had constant dialogue with Chelsea fans because the whole strategy throughout is to be very, very clear that Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned and that has clearly had implications,” Huddleston said on Wednesday.
“I was very honest and open with the Chelsea fans saying ‘this will have an impact because he has been sanctioned and he is the owner of the club’.
“We have tried to make reasonable modifications to the licence to enable fans to engage with the club and continue as much as reasonably possible.
“I continue to work with the fans, but I was very clear from day one and it’s still the case – this is not business as usual.
“This is a different world because the club’s owner has been sanctioned.”
