Sources: Chelsea hit by £168m FFP blow as paperwork filed
There is confusion within industry circles about select elements of Uefa’s new Financial Sustainability regulations and what they might mean for the likes of Chelsea, Football Insider has learned.
Chelsea announced financial losses of £121.3million for the 2021-22 campaign on Monday (27 March), down on their £145.6m shortfall the previous season.
The West Londoners have lost a staggering £399.2m over the last four seasons, although the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns were rolled into one for the purpose of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules in accordance with Covid allowances.
That gives them a deficit of £273m, which, on face value, is £168m outside the £105m Premier League clubs are allowed to lose over a rolling three-year period and even further beyond Uefa’s £26m loss limit over the same timeframe.
However, a large chunk of their outlay went towards infrastructure and other costs that are exempt from Uefa’s quota, and the governing body has said that further Covid add-backs have helped the Blues keep within the limit for 2021-22.
The club has also stated that it continues to comply with both Uefa and the Premier League’s financial regulations – even with their eye-watering £600m outlay on new signings in the last 12 months taken into account.
Significantly, however, Uefa has now replaced the old Financial Fair Play rules with a new system that ties spending to revenue, with the Premier League expected to move towards a similar model in due course.
The new Financial Sustainability regulations will limit clubs to spending 70 per cent of turnover over a three-year period on wages, transfer and agent fees when they are fully phased in by 2025.
But rather than evaluating club spending season-by-season, Uefa’s assessment window runs up to 31 December, i.e on a calendar year basis.
Industry sources consulted by this site have questioned the transparency of the new system given that most clubs release their accounts for the 12 months up to 31 May.
This, it is claimed, will leave supporters and third parties unable to cross-reference clubs’ accounts with Uefa’s financial rules as it is impossible to ascertain which assessment window their profit/loss falls into.
There are also some concerns about how the transition to the new system will be managed at what is a turbulent time for football’s financial ecosystem.
Chelsea remain on Uefa’s FFP watchlist and it is likely – albeit unconfirmed – that they are being closely monitored by the Premier League too.
The club has applied for an exemption to the top flight’s financial regulations because of the three months worth of revenue they lost when former owner Roman Abramovic was sanctioned by the UK government in March 2022.
Since taking control of the club in May of that year, Todd Boehly has handed ultra-long contracts to his blizzard of expensive new signings – the likes of Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk, and Wesley Fofana.
The American billionaire hopes that this strategy will help Chelsea dodge FFP penalties because the players’ transfer fees will, for accounting purposes, be spread out over the length of their contracts.
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