LONDON —
Thomas Tuchel says Chelsea will not
make "excuses" despite severe restrictions placed on the club as a
result of UK sanctions targeting Russian owner Roman Abramovich.
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The Premier League club are operating under
a special license after the British government last week froze the assets of
Abramovich as part of a set of punitive measures following
Russia's invasion of
Ukraine.
The license is designed to prevent Chelsea
and by extension billionaire Abramovich — described by the government as part
of Russian President
Vladimir Putin's inner circle — from generating new
revenue.
Chelsea are banned from selling tickets and
cannot spend more than £20,000 ($26,000) per match on travel costs, though the
Blues are urgently lobbying ministers for a much-needed hike.
The
European champions travel to face French
side Lille in the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday, well placed to
reach the quarter-finals after a 2–0 win in the first leg.
German boss Tuchel admitted Chelsea had been
forced to make adjustments.
"There are restrictions and we have to
deal with it," he said at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
"There are adjustments in our amount of staff who are travelling, how many
rooms we have in hotels, how we arrive at matches.
"To my understanding everything is in
place now. We can arrive on a professional level because this is not about
luxury, this is not about bling-bling."
He added: "We have a framework to go to
Lille and play the game in Lille where there will absolutely be no excuses
regarding this kind of organization.
"It is already a bit more difficult to
arrange things in a professional way, in the best way possible for the
FA Cup
(on Saturday) but we will deal with it.
"As long as we have shirts, as long as
we are 'alive', as long as we are a team and we arrive with our players we will
be competitive and we will fight hard for our success because we owe it to the
people who support us."
Chelsea have asked for their FA Cup
quarter-final at Middlesbrough to be played behind closed doors in the
interests of fairness after they were blocked from selling tickets for the
match at the Riverside Stadium.
"It is important for the competition
that the match against
Middlesbrough goes ahead," the club said in a
statement.
"However, it is with extreme reluctance
that we are asking the FA (Football Association) board to direct that the game
be played behind closed doors for matters of sporting integrity.
"Chelsea FC recognizes that such an
outcome would have a huge impact on Middlesbrough and its supporters, as well
as our own fans who have already bought the limited number of tickets that were
sold before the license was imposed, but we believe this is the fairest way of
proceeding in the current circumstances."
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