Revealed: Premier League’s response to Chelsea FFP controversy – sources
The Premier League is expected to follow Uefa’s lead and close a Financial Fair Play loophole that has allowed Chelsea to warp the transfer market, Football Insider has learned.
Chelsea have spent almost £600million since Todd Boehly was installed as the club’s new owner last May, obliterating previous records.
That figure – which was consolidated by the £107m British-record arrival of Enzo Fernandez from Benfica on deadline day – would, on face value, see Chelsea fall foul of both the Premier League and Uefa’s spending quotas.
But, as finance expert Kieran Maguire has told Football Insider, Chelsea’s new recruits have signed ultra-long contracts, allowing the transfer fees to be amortised over those timeframes and thereby offset under the terms of FFP.
Uefa has responded by introducing a new five-year limit over which the cost of a transfer can be spread for the purposes of FFP, with the new rules set to come into force ahead of 2023-24.
A source has now told Football Insider that the Premier League are re-writing their own spending regulations to align themselves with Uefa on this matter.
It is understood that the shake-up is part of wholesale modifications to the league’s FFP terms designed to reflect Uefa’s new revenue-based system.
The revised model, which is being phased in from the start of this year, will eventually limit clubs to spending 70 per cent of their turnover on wages, transfers and agent fees.
The Premier League’s current system allows clubs to lose up to £105m over a rolling three-year period as long as the bulk of those losses are covered by an owner.
It is anticipated that, as with the previous dynamic, the Premier League will adopt the same model as Uefa but on more lenient terms, perhaps with an 80 or 85 per cent limit.
In other news, Gabby Agbonlahor can’t believe “massive” Chelsea blunder amid “£50m” Fernandez claim