Former Liverpool player, Stan Collymore, has urged the English FA to strip Chelsea of every trophy they won with Roman Abramovich’s cash.
Collymore said the UK Government’s decision to freeze Abramovich’s assets over his links to Russian President Vladimir Putin called into question all Chelsea’s achievements during the 55-year-old’s two-decade ownership.
According to him, If Chelsea’s success was built on access to “dodgy” money, how could the 21 trophies won with Abramovich’s roubles be allowed to stand, he asked, adding that Juventus had titles stripped for match-fixing.
He believes that punishment should be retrospective as it would be for offences such as doping and match-fixing.
Collymore tweeted: “So the question now needs to be asked if Chelsea’s loans, access to ‘dodgy’ money and sanctions against its primary source of funds for 20 years is now rubber-stamped. How can titles won in this period stand?
“The British Government only knew Abramovich was a Putin acolyte today? Not the other 20 years? Who’s leading the security services? Inspector Clouseau?
“When RA bought the club the love of a team had strings attached. An oligarch. You can’t detach team from oligarch because team success came directly from him.
“Medals are stripped for doping, so will trophies?
“If someone doped in an Olympics 30 yrs ago they would still be stripped of the medal now.
“Therefore retro punishment is a logical question to ask. Juventus had titles stripped for match-fixing. Juventus.”
