Norwich (AP) – Coach Thomas Tuchel sees his future even after the tough sanctions against Russian club owner Roman Abramowitsch at English Champions League winners Chelsea.
“I’m still happy to be here, still happy to be the coach of a strong football team,” said Tuchel on the sidelines of London’s 3-1 win in the English Premier League on Thursday evening against bottom-placed Norwich City.
The German coach emphasized that the will of the team was unbroken despite all the new problems. “As long as we have enough shirts and a bus to go to the games, we will be there and competing hard,” said the 48-year-old. He knows that “there is a lot of noise, and yet we allow ourselves to do our best to focus on football.”
Hard sanctions
Great Britain had imposed far-reaching measures against Chelsea hours before the encounter. The club world champion is no longer allowed to transfer players, sell tickets for future games and must close all fan shops. The Russian owner Abramowitsch loses control of the football club from the English capital for the time being.
“I don’t know if I’m worried, but we are aware of it and it changes almost every day,” said Tuchel: “There’s not much we can do about it.” He now wants to wait and see how the situation might change again. “We take it day by day. I didn’t see it coming yesterday and I don’t know what tomorrow will bring,” said the former Borussia Dortmund and Mainz 05 coach.
Tuchel and the team currently have little room to maneuver anyway. “We have no influence, we didn’t cause the situation, we can’t influence it,” said the coach after the win with German internationals Timo Werner and Kai Havertz in the starting lineup against the outsider: “We allowed ourselves to enjoy that we are here and have the privilege of playing football in the Premier League. We wanted to show the best.”
Chelsea are allowed to continue playing
Britain imposed the measures on billionaire Abramovich over Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. The mobile phone company Three also asked to suspend the contract until further notice and to remove the company logo from the jerseys and advertising boards. Chelsea are currently only allowed to continue playing thanks to a special license from the British government. Those responsible now want to seek talks with the government. The aim is to relax the sanctions.
According to the license issued on Thursday, “football-related activities” are allowed. Players, coaches and all other employees may continue to be paid. Travel expenses up to a maximum of 20,000 pounds (approx. 24,000 euros) per game are permitted. The financial expenditure per home game may not exceed 500,000 pounds (approx. 600,000 euros). The club is losing significant income as a result of the sales stop for further tickets and merchandising. It is also quite possible that the Blues will also lose some top performers.