More than four years after Roman Abramovich was forced to sell Chelsea, the roughly £2.5 billion raised by the sale remains frozen in a British bank account, and the UK government has threatened legal action in its long-running dispute with the sanctioned oligarch over where the money should go.
Abramovich announced the sale in March 2022, days after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and was sanctioned by the UK shortly afterwards because of his close ties to Vladimir Putin. Chelsea operated under a special government licence until a consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the club for £2.5 billion that May, committing a further £1.75 billion in investment.
The licence was granted on the condition that Abramovich would not benefit from the sale, and that the net proceeds would go to a foundation for victims of the war. The money has since sat in an account belonging to his company Fordstam, generating, by reported estimates, well over £175 million in interest on top of the original sum.
The deadlock is about words with enormous consequences. The British government insists the money can only be used for humanitarian purposes inside Ukraine. Abramovich said from the start that he wanted it to benefit all victims of the war — a formulation London reads as allowing money to reach Russia. No foundation has yet been established to distribute the funds, and the Charity Commission has confirmed it has received no application to create one.
In December 2025 the government issued a licence intended to allow the transfer of the proceeds to a new foundation for humanitarian causes in Ukraine and gave a deadline in March 2026, presenting it as a last chance. The deadline passed without a transfer. Ministers said it was time Abramovich did the right thing and that, if he would not, the government would act.
His lawyers have argued the funds remain Fordstam's property, that there is no legal basis for seizing them and that any attempt would be contested. Accounts for Fordstam suggest the net proceeds figure is itself disputed once loans are taken into account, adding a further layer of argument to any court case. A related investigation in Jersey into the origins of Abramovich's wealth may also affect the legal battle.
The frozen billions have become a symbol of the limits of sanctions policy: a state can force a sale and freeze the proceeds, but turning that freeze into money actually reaching war victims has proved far harder. Chelsea, meanwhile, play on under new owners — and face their own regulatory reckoning over alleged rule breaches from the Abramovich era, which the current leadership says it self-reported.