Chelsea :The profligate in the transfer market

 CHELSEA: THE PROFLIGATE IN THE                               TRANSFER MARKET

Photo: Google

Adebayo Nurudeen

   How the club found a loophole in the  FFP RULE

January Transfer Window explained

Long-term contracts to players 

Registration of players in the champions league 

Following the liquidation of Chelsea Football club by the British government, the club was sold to American business owner Todd Boehly, the co-owner of seven-time MLB World Series winners the Los Angeles Dodgers. His arrival at the club has made it scale up as the highest spenders in the transfer market. Chelsea has spent the sum of $465m for the signing of players and a world record sum of  £22 million in compensation for taking Graham Potter. This begs the question of how Chelsea has been able to keep up with the financial fair play rules that restrict clubs from extravagant spending. Below is an analysis of Chelsea signing over the two transfer window.

Raheem Sterling – £50m

Kalidou Koulibaly – £34m

Marc Cucurella – £62m

Wesley Fofana – £70m

Carney Chukwuemeka – £20m

Gabriel Slonina – £12m

Cesare Casadei – £12.6m plus £4.2m in add-ons

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – £10.6m

Denis Zakaria – £2.6m loan fee (option to buy for £30m)

Benoit Badiashile – £33.7m

Andrey Santos – £11m

David Datro Fofana – £10m

Joao Felix – £9.7m loan fee

Mykhailo Mudryk – £88m

 Noni Madueke – £35m

Total: £465m

 

FFP RULES

The rule operates on the model of a spending cap (the so-called 'squad cost ratio') on wages, transfers, and agents' fees to 70 percent of a club's total revenue. Clubs are required to settle overdue payables in specified timeframes. Failure to comply with the squad cost requirement may lead to a proportional financial penalty and breach of the solvency requirement on payables may result in clubs being excluded from future competitions.

In simple terms, this means the FFP rule is designed on  3cycle modification (3 seasons), and the parameters for deciding the breach of the rules are dependent on the amount of success a club has, income, commercials, and Transfer fee. This is why Chelsea gives the new recruitment –long years of contract coupled with an option to extend. One thing peculiar about Chelsea's new signings has been that they have been given lengthy contracts at the club. Mudryk has an eight and half year deal, while both Madueke and Benoit Badiashile have contracts that are valid for seven and a half years. Chelsea found a loophole in the FFP rule which explains why they have been making these signings as the transfer fee and add-ons will be paid in phases during the length of these contracts.

In addition, Chelsea football club is technically debt free. How? It can be recalled that during the process of transfer of ownership, Roman Abrahmovic decided to write off the club's staggering £1.6bn debt, which simply puts Chelsea at an advantage over the other premier league clubs in terms of spending.

 

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE REGISTRATION

Chelsea's new additions in the January transfer window are:

Benoit Badiashile - £33.7m

Andrey Santos – £11m

David Datro Fofana – £10m

Joao Felix – £9.7m loan fee

Mykhailo Mudryk – £88m

 Noni Madueke – £35m

 

Another question is the number of players in the Chelsea squad, will they be eligible to play in the second part of the champions league? What do the regulations say about squad changes? Here are the relevant extracts from the UEFA Champions League regulations:

 

Section 45.01

Each club is responsible for submitting to UEFA an A list of players (List A) and a B list of players (List B), duly signed by the club and verified, validated, and additionally signed by its association. List A has been released by Chelsea at the beginning of the Champions League Group Stage.

section45.08

For the qualifying phase and the playoffs, a club may register a maximum of two new eligible players on List A.

Section 45.11

A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 2001 and since his 15th birthday has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years, or a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year. Players aged 16 may be registered on List B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption.

 

section46.01

As of the round of 16, a club may register a maximum of three new eligible players for the remaining matches in the current competition. Such registration must be completed by 2 February 2023 (24.00CET) at the latest. This deadline cannot be extended.

 

About (45.11), it means a club can register a limited no of players in list B, the list consists mainly of players born after January 2001, under the age of 22. Badiashile is 221 years of age, santos is 18,fofana is 20, Mudryk 2 is 2 (born on Jan 5, 2001). This set of players will be included in the B list and not the 25-man Squad.

 

Conclusively, it is safe to say Chelsea found a loophole in the FFP rules coupled y giving long-term contracts to their signing while also benefiting from Roman  Abrahmovic's waving the club's debt.

At the time of writing this article, reports have it that Uefa is postulating a new rule to prevent clubs from giving lengthy years of contract.

Chelsea fans can keep the blue flag flying high( KTBFFH) because they have got away with this.