When Russia invaded Ukraine this week, Chelsea fan Tom Overend found himself feeling uneasy about the club’s Russian ownership. An international relations and economics graduate who helps run fan platform The Chelsea Social, Overend posted on his personal account questioning Chelsea fans’ idolisation of their owner, Roman Abramovich, before deleting it owing to the backlash he received.
“I had memes of people saying ‘Vladimir Putin is shaking and quivering at Tom Overend’s tweet’,” the 23-year-old says of the response to his post. “It’s really hard to stomach that, because I know the struggles and the people whose lives have been made hell by the Russian government and by Putin.”
Chelsea have enjoyed huge success under Abramovich since he took over in July 2003. They
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