Drogba: Leave my Chelsea alone!

Chelsea legend Didier Drogba doesn't want his former club's fans and employees to suffer because of the sanctions imposed by the British government. Although the reasoning behind it is that the club's Russian owner Roman Abramovich should be punished - it's the football fans who are impacted the most.

"And to see the club suffering from these sanctions as a result of the crisis in Ukraine is a pity because I believe football has nothing to do with this. I sometimes question the decisions, the sanctions of the club, not letting the club operate at its full capacity is a big mistake."

Speaking to CNN, the Ivorian said that it's not fair to have ordinary people, who have nothing to do with Russia, feeling the consequences of rash political decisions.

"When you, when you sanction a club like that, you want to sanction Roman Abramovich and his relations with Vladimir Putin, but I think you are creating more damage to the club's people, the workers, who are English as well, who are European as well who live for the club. You are sanctioning the fans who travel every day for many years to make this club alive."

Sunday, 16.00: (1.61) Chelsea (4.20) West Ham (6.50)

These days, the 44-year-old Drogba is working hard to become the head of the Ivorian Football Association (Federation Ivoirienne de Football - FIF) with the number one goal to remedy the main problem of African football - the lack of organisation.

"I've been around many, many countries, many continents, and I've seen a lot of African talent everywhere I've been. Look at the France national team who won the World Cup in 2018. I would say 70-80% of them are either born in Africa or have African parents. And then they went to France, like at a very young age. We have those talents here. We don't put a team around them to let them understand that they have the qualities. It's just a question of organisation."

The FIF vote is set to take place tomorrow.