Irish Examiner view: Ukraine crisis forces Abramovich out of the game

Opinions are divided but Russian oligarch had a transformative impact on the Premier League

Roman Abramovich celebrates last May after the UEFA Champions League final match held at Estadio do Dragao in Porto, Portugal. Picture:

It was inevitable from the moment that Vladimir Putin made his rambling address providing “friendship and mutual aid with Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic” and his armour started rolling from the Crimea, and his client state of Belarus, that the jig would be up for Roman Abramovich.

Abramovich, the Russian who possesses Israeli and Portuguese citizenship and no longer lives in London, is perhaps the West’s best-known oligarch through his ownership of Chelsea Football Club.