Times: Chelsea has to sell £60 million to register new players in the Champions League

The Times published an article reporting on Chelsea's financial compliance status.

Chelsea is about to win a huge prize in the Club World Cup, and the victory over Palmeiras in the quarter-finals is worth 15.6 million pounds. The total income currently has nearly 60 million pounds. This windfall came at the right time. Last week, UEFA issued the largest fine in history (an unconditional fine of £27 million, plus a potential pursuit of £51.8 million) to the Blues as a settlement agreement that violates fiscal rules.

But what really could have a substantial impact on Chelsea is not the fine, but the sports sanctions it faces together with Aston Villa, who is also punished, which injects subtle variables into the remaining transfer window this summer and may exacerbate the club's selling pressure. Unless A-list transfer income and expenditure achieve surplus, the Blues will not be able to register new players for the Champions League next season. The provision, which lasts at least two seasons, means that any new registered players must be offset by selling players' income, and the Club World Cup bonus will not help.

Chelsea still has a large number of players to be registered. In addition to new players Drapp, Joao Pedro and Gittens, Estewan, Essugo, Andre Santos, Mamadu Saar and Mike Penders (if not loaned out) may also require registration. Maresca said on Friday that he has not paid attention to the matter, but the reality is far from being so easy.

The key issue is that Chelsea's A-list refers to the UEFA Europa League knockout roster submitted in February this year, which means that players who are not listed such as Lavia and Wesley Fofana also need to re-register. The registration cost of new players includes salary and amortized transfer fees. Take Drapp's 30 million pounds (average amortization of 6 million per year during the five-year contract period) as an example. Excluding salary, the cost of registering all the above players has exceeded 60 million pounds. UEFA will not recognize the amortization method for more than five-year contract periods starting from 2023.

Fortunately, players for sale do not have to be limited to the A-list members last season. Felix, Sterling, Chilville, Renato Vega and DiSassi, who are not selected for the Club World Cup lineup and will return to the Cobham training base on Monday, can improve the balance of income and expenditure. As long as the sales are sold before the registration deadline on September 2, the income will be recognized. The registration ban will only trigger if the total revenue and expenditure remain negative after the final list is submitted.

But Chelsea knows the difficulty of cleaning up redundant staff, and Nkunku's future has variables and may seek a next home this summer. Although Maduaike performed well last season and helped the team qualify for the Champions League, the club will not stop him from leaving the team in the face of Arsenal's interest. Although another new England international, Charoba, was praised by the head coach, the possibility of leaving the team still exists.

Chelsea is optimistic about the impact of avoiding punishment, emphasizing that unless the players take the initiative to ask for it, there is no need to be forced to sell Maduaike and others, and they are confident about the Champions League registration. In fact, they have not ruled out continuing to sign ups, and West Ham's Kudus is the key target. If Maduaike leaves the team, the probability of Kudus joining will increase significantly. However, the premise of all signings is to give priority to the player sale.