Thomas Tuchel understands Chelsea’s Carabao Cup final against Liverpool may come with a “little bit of a bad conscience” amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A crowd of around 90,000 is expected at Wembley tomorrow and millions more will be watching across the UK and the rest of the world as the Blues attempt to win their third trophy of the campaign.
For many supporters, the match will be a two-hour escape from the devastating reality that war is being waged in Europe once more. Yet Tuchel acknowledges he will find it difficult to mentally detach himself from the situation in Ukraine no matter the importance of the game to Chelsea.
“Clearly yes [the match can be a good distraction], but still because the war is so close, so fresh, maybe it comes with a little bit of a bad conscience on Sunday,” Tuchel explained during his pre-match press conference.
“Like, are we allowed to fully engage, fully celebrate? Or would it be inappropriate? This is how I feel about it because it’s so new and fresh. It’s a mixed feeling I have to say.”
It was announced earlier this evening that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich – who has always denied close links to Russian president Vladimir Putin – has handed over the running and decision-making powers at the club to its charitable foundation, which is headed by Blues chairman Bruce Buck.
The 55-year-old took the decision to step back to protect the club from reputational damage following Russia's attempted invasion of Ukraine.
Given Abramovich’s ownership and involvement at Chelsea, there will be many neutrals who will favour Liverpool in tomorrow’s Carabao Cup final.
And when facing the media on Friday ahead of the game, Tuchel was asked if he could use any anti-Chelsea sentiment to create a siege mentality among his first-team squad. The German gave the idea short shrift.
“I know what you mean and sometimes we use these things, like when a decision goes against you or you feel treated unfairly, to build this sort of mentality to protect you, your team, your staff and build a strong crew to shield yourself from the influences and unfairness from outside.
“In this case, the issue is too big. I see the point but if you give it a second thought, how does it help now if we lose a football match given the situation that we have a war? This is simply not important enough and it will unfortunately not help. If it would, I am happy to lose the match.
“On this subject, it’s too big to be used by us. We are emotionally involved, we suffer with everybody who needs to suffer, it’s still unthinkable for us and we can’t imagine what people go through who are actually involved.”
Tuchel added: “I was born in a peaceful Europe, have only lived in a peaceful Europe, and took peace for granted. Sometimes, war happened and it was more and more reported by the media because of the media landscape changed dramatically – you know what is going on on the other side of the world.
“So from time to time, you had this brutal reality check but still it felt far away. Now, a life experience: we have a war in Europe and it is simply unusual and a very horrible situation that nobody wants to experience. Everybody is worried.”
