Russia-Ukraine war: Liverpool, Man United legends slam Roman Abramovich over Chelsea’s statement

Liverpool and Manchester United legends have slammed Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich over his statement amid global rage over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Abramovich released a statement on Saturday, which was on his ownership of Chelsea.

In his statement on Saturday evening, Abramovich said he is “giving trustees of Chelsea’s charitable foundation the stewardship and care” of the Blues.

The announcement meant that the Russian billionaire remains the club’s owner, despite calls for him to give up the club following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

And Neville has now hit out at Abramovich’s gesture, saying it was clear that the Russian billionaire is still in charge, while Carragher said that Chelsea “embarrassed themselves” with their statement.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville said, “One of the smartest things that I think Roman Abramovich has done over the last 20 years is not to speak, not to make statements.

“Because the statement that he made last night left more questions than answers.

“If anything I thought it was, to be fair, a cowardly approach to sort of throw a hospital pass to good people on the charitable and foundation board, when it’s quite clear he runs the club with Marina [Granovskaia, club director] and [technical and performance advisor] Petr Cech.

“There’s no way that the charitable foundation of Chelsea is running the club and I’m not quite sure why Roman Abramovich made that statement.

“If he wanted to make a statement of any note, it would have been whether he supports the war in Ukraine or he actually doesn’t support the war in Ukraine.”

On his part, Carragher said, “I don’t think they have handled it really well. With a couple of statements, they have put out, I think it has been really poor and they have let themselves down badly.

“I don’t think they did that well either.

“It’s not worked out well for them at all, I think they have embarrassed themselves. They should have been a lot stronger in what they said, and regarding Roman Abramovich passing on to Chelsea trustees, that’s not him relinquishing the club, stewardship is not ownership. It is completely different because he is still in charge, he is still running it, which is fine.

“But to not actually mention in his initial statement what was going on in Ukraine, I thought was really poor.”