Gary Neville criticises ‘cowardly’ Roman Abramovich over Chelsea stewardship move

The Russian owner confirmed the move on Saturday amid conflict in Ukraine

Gary Neville has criticised Roman Abramovich for a “cowardly” move to hand the stewardship of Chelsea to the club’s charitable foundation amid the conflict in Ukraine.

The Russian made the shock statement to announce the move to hand the trustees “care” of the Blues on Saturday evening ahead of the club’s Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.

The Chelsea owner has repeatedly denied any connection with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, though the decision comes after the UK Government confirmed a number of sanctions against Russian banks, oligarchs and companies.

The day-to-day running of Chelsea is likely to remain constant with Marina Granovskaia controlling football operations, but Neville is unhappy at the vagueness of the statement and refuses to believe that the foundation will have much say in the running of the football club.

“Maybe myself and most others who saw that statement thought, ‘oh, this is a noble gesture, it’s the right thing to do’… when you look at who the trustees are, Emma Hayes the Chelsea women’s manager, Piara Powar who set-up Kick It Out, John Devine [sports lawyer], it’s quite clear they’re not going to be running Chelsea Football Club,” Neville told Sky Sports.

“One of the smartest things I think that Roman Abramovich has done over the last 20 years is not speak, not make statements because the statement that he made last night left more questions than answers.

“In fact, if anything, it was cowardly approach to throw a hospital pass to good people on the foundation board when it’s quite clear he runs the football club with Marina [Granovskaia] and Petr Cech.

“These owners from the top-six clubs are insulated from reality. They think they can put a smart PR team around them and con us with fancy words but unfortunately it doesn’t work.

“There’s no way that the charitable foundation of Chelsea are 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’ve been whether he supports the war in Ukraine or he doesn’t support the war in Ukraine.”