ROMAN BANNED FROM UK
Why he wasn’t at cup final
CHELSEA owner Roman Abramovich missed his team’s FA Cup Final victory over Manchester United at Wembley after he was barred from Britain.
The oligarch’s visa ran out last month and the Home Office has yet to rule on a new one.
CHELSEA owner Roman Abramovich missed Saturday’s FA Cup Final because his UK visa has reportedly run out.
The oligarch was forced to return to Russia after his paperwork was said to have expired last month.
It’s believed British authorities have yet to approve his application for a new investor visa – forcing him to miss the final.
His beloved Chelsea lifted the trophy after beating Jose Mourinho’s Man United 1-0 thanks to a goal from Eden Hazard, with skipper Gary Cahill hoisting the cup.
Pals of the businessman – worth £9.3billion and the 13th richest man in the UK – say the Home Office are being slow to renew the paperwork.
His aide John Mann said: “This is his personal business. We do not comment on it.” The Home Office also declined to comment.
Pumped
The football-mad businessman is a regular fixture in the directors’ box at Stamford Bridge and has always been present for big games. He made his millions from oil and aluminium following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Russian oligarch is not shy when it comes to flashing the cash – he has a huge mansion in west London worth
£125million, an enormous yacht and in
2003 he bought Chelsea and has pumped millions into the club.
In January, Mr Abramovich appeared on an American list of 114 senior figures in President Vladimir Putin’s government and
96 oligarchs close to the Russian leader. They called for sanctions against them all to punish them for alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election.
The visa issue is the latest twist in a tense stand-off between the UK and Russia following the poisoning of 66-year-old former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, 33, in Salisbury, Wilts, in March.
The UK has said that Russia was behind the attempted killing. President Putin denied the accusation, saying if that were true the Skripals would be dead.