‘Don’t punish innocent Chelsea fans and the Champions of Europe’ – Mayor of London tells government

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has urged that innocent Chelsea fans shouldn’t be made to lose their club.

Although Khan is in support of the sanctions on the Chelsea owner, he believes that the London club and champions of Europe shouldn’t be lost in the process.

“I think Chelsea are a great Premier League club, they’re the champions of Europe, the world club champions,” Khan told the PA news agency.

“They were a great club before the current owner and they’ll be a great club after the current owner.

“It’s important to distinguish Chelsea and what’s happening in Ukraine because the reality is for too long Russian oligarchs close to Putin had been using homes in London, businesses in London, to launder money.

“I think it’s right that the Government is now taking sanctions and seizing assets of those Russian oligarchs close to Putin.

“What’s also important though is we don’t allow a situation where any asset which may be owned by a Russian oligarch close to Putin is sold off in a fire sale,

“What’s important is for these assets to be seized, I want some of these empty homes to be used to house some of these Ukrainians fleeing the war zone.

“Some of these assets I want sold off to be used to support those Ukrainians, both who are still in Ukraine and those who have left Ukraine.”