Thomas Tuchel has admitted that he and his players are worried and distracted by the “uncertainty” created by the Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, being named in parliament on Thursday.
Chelsea take on Liverpool on Sunday for the final of the 2022 Carabao Cup.
Tuchel said he was aware that Chelsea could be affected if the UK government targets Abramovich with sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The manager acknowledged that Chelsea could not ignore that a Labour MP told parliament that Abramovich was identified by the Home Office in 2019 as having links to the Russian state as well as to “corrupt activity and practices”.
Telling MPs that he was quoting from a Home Office document leaked to him, Chris Bryant suggested that the UK should seize Abramovich’s assets and bar him from owning Chelsea. Bryant also questioned why nothing more had been done about the 55-year-old’s UK assets given this official verdict.
“I am aware of all these scenarios and I am aware of all these discussions at the moment,” Tuchel said.
“I would love to take my right not to comment on this until there is a decision made. But we are aware of it and it’s distracting us, it’s worrying us. To a certain degree I can understand the opinions and the critical opinions towards the club, towards us who represent that club. I can understand that and we cannot fully free ourselves from it.
“Maybe people understand that me as a coach or the players, we don’t have the insight what is really going on. At the moment we don’t feel responsible for all this. We feel that it is horrible and there can be no doubt about it. War in Europe was unthinkable for me for a long period.
The impact is clear and the discussions have an impact. Let’s be a bit more patient and understand what the measurements will be and then we have to maybe deal with it.”
