Gary Neville accuses Roman Abramovich of 'cowardly approach' over Chelsea stewardship statement
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ByEurosport
Updated 27/02/2022 at 18:17 GMT
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has seen leading Russians come under the spotlight. Roman Abramovich is one and he released a statement on Saturday saying he had relinquished control of Chelsea to the club's charitable foundation. It is a decision that has come in for criticism, including from Gary Neville.
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Roman Abramovich has come in for criticism from Gary Neville, with the former England international saying the Chelsea owner has taken a “cowardly approach” by handing over running of the Blues to the club’s charitable trust.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seen Abramovich come under the spotlight, and he released a statement on Saturday saying the running of the club had been handed over to Chelsea’s Charitable Foundation.
The Telegraph has said that has not yet been confirmed, with the report saying the trustees are concerned about being seen as a front for Abramovich.
That is a view shared by Neville, who said in his role on Sky Sports at the Carabao Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea that Abramovich will continue to make the major decisions at Stamford Bridge.
"One of the smartest things that I think Roman Abramovich has done over the last 20 years is not speak, not make statements," Neville said. "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 Petr Cech (technical and performance advisor).
"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."
Neville’s fellow pundit Jamie Carragher echoed those sentiments, saying Chelsea embarrassed themselves with Saturday’s statement.
“It’s not worked out well for them at all,” Carragher said. “I think they’ve 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’s completely different because he’s still in charge, he’s 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.”
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