Former Chelsea owner Ken Bates has criticised the sanctions the UK government has placed upon Roman Abramovich.
Abramovich has had his assets frozen in the UK, forcing Chelsea to operate under a special sporting licence which limits what they can do.
The Russian oligarch is still trying to sell the club he has owned since 2003, but the Blues are currently trying to adapt to their stringent financial constraints.
Chelsea cannot sell tickets or merchandise, buy or sell players, or offer new contracts, while the company credit cards were suspended on Friday and they have financial restrictions they have to meet on match days.
Bates bought Chelsea for £1 in 1982 before selling to Abramovich 19 years later for around £140million.
While the 90-year-old agrees with the decision to sanction Abramovich, who has been described as a "pro-Kremlin oligarch" by the UK government, he is scathing when it comes to the implications for his old club Chelsea.
“The fact that you can't buy a Chelsea match programme must mean that [Vladimir] Putin is s*****g himself and all the ordinary people of Moscow are hiding in their cellars because they can't see a Chelsea match on TV,” Bates told the Daily Mail .
“As usual, it is the ordinary people who are suffering. You've probably got people working at Chelsea saying do they have a job? What is their future? Do they have security?
“And [the] fans at Chelsea. What have they got to do with Putin bombing maternity hospitals in Ukraine?
“That is hurting ordinary, English citizens. Makes no difference at all to Russia. It makes the Civil Service a laughing stock of the world. I've dealt with civil servants most of my life and, by and large, they're all bloody useless.
“Abramovich turned around and said, ‘I'm going sell the club and whatever I get I'm going to give to charity.’
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“They (the government) have taken over the club. Fine. Why didn't they appoint an administrator and get on with it?
“Instead, we've got all these regulations, which just get some good headlines. 'England takes firm action against Russia.'
“If we are trying to help Ukraine we should be doing things that are meaningful.”
Abramovich is continuing in his efforts to sell Chelsea through American merchant bank Raine Group and there are understood to be plenty of interested parties.
The 55-year-old has reportedly set a deadline of Tuesday for bids to be submitted.
There are three American-led consortiums interested in buying the club, and while it is not yet clear how such a sale would proceed under the sanctions, Bates does not feel for Abramovich.
“I don't feel sympathy for him,” he said.
Why should I? He's worth £7-8billion. But he can only eat steak and chips twice a day, same as me. When he goes to his grave, his shroud won't have any pockets in it.”
