Chelsea face major challenge to comply with Uefa’s financial rules as ban imposed on controversial loophole

ROADBLOCKED Chelsea are facing a challenge to comply with Uefa’s financial rules after the European body confirmed it’s stance on registering income.

UefawillNOT allow clubs to register earnings from selling assets to sister companies, which Chelsea have done to ease losses this summer.

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Todd Boehlyand Clearlake have offset some of the club’s deficit by selling two of Chelsea’s hotels to a sister company for £76.5million.

The women’s team, meanwhile, was sold to the club’s parent company two days before the end of the financial year in June.

The Premier League has yet to close loopholes that have allowed Chelsea to register the sales as registered income.

But Uefa will prevent clubs benefiting from income through selling assets this way, reports The Times.

Any sanction or settlement for a breach of Uefa’s financial rules would not affect Chelsea in this season’s Conference League.

However, in theory, if Chelsea fail to comply they could be excluded from European football next season amid a host of other punishments.

Uefa did stress that all cases would have to be assessed individually by its independent panel. 

This loophole is banned by the English Football League for clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two.

What’s happened so far between Uefa and Cheslea?

In September 2022, Chelsea were placed on a “watchlist” by Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body.

They were among 19 European clubs who escaped action only because of Covid-related allowances.

However, as they failed to qualify for Europe for the 2022-23 season they were not liable to any enforcement of Uefa’s financial rules.

In June last year, Uefa closed another loophole that allowed clubs to spread the cost of a transfer fee over the length of the player’s contract.

 Uefa imposed a five-year maximum for players signed after July 1.

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Uefa financial regulations are already more difficult to comply with than the Prem’s.

Profit and Sustainability Rules, used by the English top-flight, permit clubs to lose a maximum of £105m over a rolling three-year period.

But Uefa’s ‘football earnings’ rule allows clubs to lose only £34.5m over two seasons.

Chelsea’s most recent accounts were published in April, and in them Boehly reaffirmed that the club are in line to subscribe with Uefa rules.

The owners at Stamford Bridge have spent just shy of £1.2BILLION on transfers since arriving in May 2022.

The West Londoners have raised cash through selling the likes of pure profit academy graduates Conor Gallagher to Atletico Madrid and Ian Maatsen to Aston Villa.

But they have once again spent significantly more than they have earned, with Pedro Neto and Joao Felix among their raft of new signings as they continue to eye another striker before Friday’s deadline.

Chelsea are still without a main front-of-shirt sponsor after two games of the season for the second consecutive year as they fetch a more lucrative deal.

Back in 2019, AC Milan reached a settlement with Uefa to serve a one-year ban from European competition due to multiple financial breaches.

And in 2020, Manchester City were banned from the Champions League for two years and hit with a £25million fine after breaking FFP.

The Citizens ban was later overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Changes to the Premier League for 2024/25

NOTHING stays the same forever.

And that includes the Premier League, which is making a number of tweaks this season.

Team news will now be released 75 MINUTES before kick-off, 15 minutes earlier than had been the case before.

Things could get crowded on the touchline, with the number of substitutes permitted to warm-up boosted from three players per team to FIVE.

There’s also a change to how added time is calculated when a team scores a goal, an update to the ‘multiball’ system and the introduction of semi-automated offsides – but not straight away.

Go here to read about all the changes to the Premier League for 2024/25.