It's been another tumultuous week for Chelsea in which owner Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned by the UK government as part of its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the club's long-term future has been placed into doubt.
The decision to sanction Abramovich was made on Thursday morning and resulted in all his assets in the UK being frozen, including Chelsea.
However, the government granted a special licence – called The Russia Regulations – to enable the club to continue operating until the end of the season under strict restrictions.
That licence would, as it stands, block Abramovich's potential sale of Chelsea. But the government is prepared to amend it if an offer is made for Chelsea that does not result in the Russian seeing a penny.
In the document that confirmed Abramovich had been sanctioned, it described the Chelsea owner as a "pro-Kremlin oligarch" who has had close links to Russian president Vladimir Putin for "decades".
As a consequence, Chelsea shirt sponsor Three requested on Thursday afternoon to pause their £40million deal with the club and asked for "the removal of our brand from shirts and around the stadium until further notice".
That request came too late for the Blues to remove the sponsor from their shirt for the game at Carrow Road against Norwich City, which Chelsea won 3-1.
And yesterday, car manufacturing giants Hyundai, who are Chelsea's shirt-sleeve sponsors, announced they were also suspending their relationship with the Blues.
A statement read: "In the current circumstances, we have taken the decision to suspend our marketing and communication activities with the club until further notice."
But for this afternoon's Premier League clash against Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea will continue to wear shirts with both sponsors' logos.
football.london understands the reason for that is Chelsea do not have any stock of shirts without the logos and are currently unable to order more after Abramovich was sanctioned.
