Charity Commission requests more detail on Abramovich’s plans for Chelsea

theguardian.com:

The Charity Commission has contacted Chelsea’s charitable foundation to ask for more information about Roman Abramovich’s plan to pass the care and stewardship of the club to the organisation’s trustees, who are yet to agree to the new arrangement.

Abramovich’s decision to relinquish the running of Chelsea came after a call in parliament for him to face sanctions and the move has come under growing scrutiny since it was announced on Saturday evening. The Russian has not given up his ownership of the club and the foundation’s trustees are understood to feel that there are legal and regulatory problems, as well as ethical concerns, over the change of stewardship.

There are several unanswered questions over the move and the trustees are unsure about whether running a football club would be compatible with charity law. They do not know who they would be answerable to, whether a separate entity would need to be created and whether there would be liability over future decisions. It also remains unclear whether sanctions will be imposed on Abramovich, while Chelsea are at risk of being in a vulnerable financial position if their owner is targeted by the UK government.

Abramovich, who has vehemently denied that he has any links to Vladimir Putin and Russia or that he has done anything to merit being sanctioned, was said to have reached his decision to transfer the stewardship because of the increased focus on him following the invasion of Ukraine. The haste with which the move was made was said to have surprised the trustees, who were not consulted before the decision was made on Saturday. However nothing has been agreed yet and the move has attracted the attention of the Charity Commission, who have also received a report from