Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley says she "doesn't think it's particularly fair" that Roman Abramovich has decided to sell Chelsea.
Abramovich made the announcement on Wednesday with pressure rising over his association with Vladimir Putin following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Staveley told the Financial Times Business of Football Summit: "We're always going to have geopolitical issues.
"I'm really sad that someone is going to have a football club taken away because of a relationship he may have with someone.
"I don't think that's particularly fair to be honest. But we do have to hold all of our relationships to account."
Staveley also revealed that Newcastle's majority owners - the Saudi Public Investment Fund - also looked at buying Chelsea.
"One great thing about taking four years to buy Newcastle is we had a great opportunity to look at every club, including Chelsea," she said. "Chelsea is a wonderful club, but there was only one club for us and will only ever be one club for us.
"We like the challenge of buying a club at 20th position [in the league] and getting it to the top."
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