Chelsea on the brink of Premier League point deduction

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Chelsea football clubs season could go from bad to worse with the possibility of a serious points deduction for breaching Premier League Profit and Sustainability rules on the horizon.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side are still recovering from their disappointing loss to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final but now face serious challenges off the pitch.  The Blues hierarchy have spent more than one-billion Euros on player transfers since Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali took over the club from Roman Abramovich in 2022.

Chelsea are not the only club to have been followed close by PSR but their case differs to both Everton and Nottingham Forest.  Chelsea’s expenditure will be viewed by the body as completely reckless and avoidable and will therefore face the possibility of a more severe punishment for any form of breach.

This reckless expenditure now has Chelsea in danger of breaking financial fairplay rules.  It is believed the club will have to raise £100m pounds in pure profit before June 30th 2024 or face a points deduction.  The difficulty surrounding this figure is that pure profit is required not just sales.  It will not be enough to sell big name stars like Romelu Lukaku or Raheem Sterling for high figures, they need to generate fees higher than these players book value.

This will likely force the club to turn to the sales of their academy graduates.  Financially, the sales of academy players reflect as pure profit on the books, meaning that £100m of academy sales would be enough to prevent their breach.

The issue around this though is that few clubs will be looking to help Chelsea out.  At the beginning of the 2023/24 season Chelsea managed to get through after selling big name stars like Kai Havertz, Mateo Kovacic, Kalidou Koulibaly and Christian Pulisic as well as talented academy graduates Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ethan Ampadu for respectable figures.  This time round however there is a lack valuable assets at the club to flog for profit.

The transfer window will officially open on the 14th of June, meaning clubs can do business with Chelsea, however due to the 2024 Euro’s taking place in Germany from the 14th of June until the 14th of July, it is unlikely there will be clubs flocking to buy and players willing to move until the end of the competition.  This puts serious financial pressure on the Blues.

Connor Gallagher, Armando Broja, Ian Maatsen, Trevor Chalobah and Lewis Hall will be the academy graduates attracting the most attention.  Gallagher has been linked to Spurs, Broja to Fulham and both Maatsen and Hall have buy-options at their loan clubs.  The market value of these young players in normal circumstances would comfortably cover the £100m deficit but now potential buyers will smell blood.

Chelsea’s financials have been scrutinized for obvious reasons.  Their unprecedented level of spending on transfers in the past 18 months has left many asking questions about the financials behind over one-billion Euros in fees.  Despite reassurances from Chelsea’s hierarchy that their spending was responsible and within in their means, it appears this was not the whole truth and if £100m of pure profit is not raised before June 30th 2024, the Blues will face serious punishment from the Premier League.

Photo: Twitter @CFCMod_

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Dylan Johnson