John Terry has torn in the UK government after Roman Abramovich was forced to sell Chelsea in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than three-and-a-half years ago. Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 and oversaw a highly successful period for the club.

Abramovich was sanctioned by Boris Johnson’s Conservative government in March 2022 as the Russian oligarch had his assets frozen. And he then sold the club to a Todd Boehly-led consortium a couple of months later. Abramovich’s sanctions remain in place today under Sir Kier Starmer’s Labour government, with the £2.5billion he raised through the club’s sale remaining frozen in a UK bank account. And Terry is not happy with how the situation played out.

“I think he’s one of the nicest people you could ever meet in your life,” Terry explained on The Obi One Podcast.

“I think it’s disgusting what happened to him, I really do. I think as a UK government we should be embarrassed by our actions towards him.

“What he did during lockdown and what he did for the NHS was sensational. He opened up Stamford Bridge to all the nurses and gave people homes during that difficult time. He was just a lovely, lovely man who loved our football club and thankfully turned away from one other football club and made the right decision to come.”

And discussing what Abramovich had done for Chelsea, Terry explained: “I think everyone had a really good relationship with him. I have to say one of the nicest people you could ever meet in your life.

“The old training ground was a s***h***. And he came in and he was like, ‘No, we’re not training there.’ And very shortly after that we bought Cobham, and he turned it into what it is today, giving us opportunities like that to perform on the best pitches, the best facilities, the best staff, improvements on the stadium.

“He was invested in you guys as well (the players). He would come to us and go, ‘We’re paying for supporters to travel to Bolton this weekend because it’s after a Champions League game.’ That happened quite a bit under Roman, he was invested in that. One of the nicest people you could ever meet in your life.”

Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea is outlined in a book called Sanctioned, which was earlier released this year.

And in an interview in Dubai ahead of the book’s launch, the 59-year-old was quoted as saying: “Perhaps one day there would be a situation where I could attend a [Chelsea] match and say a proper goodbye, but nothing more than that.”

He added: “I don’t have any interest in any role in a football club, certainly not a professional role.”