Chelsea insist Roman Abramovich has not yet scrapped his plans to build a new stadium, despite the club acknowledging that planning permission for the project will be allowed to expire and the coronavirus crisis casting more doubt on whether it will ever get off the ground again.

Planning permission for the 60,000 capacity super-stadium that some had likened to a ‘football cathedral’ was granted three years ago on the premise that work would start before March 31, 2020.

Abramovich paused the project almost two years ago, following the refusal of the UK Government to renew Chelsea’s Russian owner's Tier-1 visa, and the club have now effectively returned to stage one of the project by allowing planning permission to lapse on Tuesday.

Given Abramovich has made no attempt to reapply for a visa and has not been seen at Stamford Bridge for two years, there was already no prospect of the necessary work starting by the end of this month.

As part of the planning permission, Chelsea had agreed to have started the demolition of all the buildings on the site around the stadium, including the two hotels. The fact one of those hotels is currently providing bed and breakfast to NHS staff, at Abramovich's expense, during the coronavirus crisis only highlights the new environment in which everybody is now living and working.

Chelsea had pointed to the “unfavourable investment climate” in their 2018 statement confirming that the stadium had been shelved, with the uncertainty over what a post-Brexit landscape might look like.