Chelsea’s Transfer Style Forces UEFA To Change Fair Play Rules

Due to Chelsea’s recent trend of signing players to lengthy contracts, the European football governing body, Uefa has altered its Financial Fair Play rules.

In recent years, Chelsea has adopted an approach of obeying the financial fair play rules by offering players long-term contracts and spreading the player’s transfer fee over the length of the contract.

For instance, when Chelsea signed Mykhailo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk for a transfer fee worth £89 million, the Premier League club offered the Ukrainian player an eight-and-a-half-year deal. Interestingly, the agreed transfer fee will be spread throughout the contract, that is, £11 million annually.

By UK regulations, clubs will still be able to offer longer contracts but they won’t be permitted to include transfer fees after the first five years.

The coming summer will see the implementation of the new FFP restrictions, which won’t be retrospective.

Earlier this month, Chelsea signed six-and-a-half-year contracts with French defender Benoit Badiashile and Ivory Coast attacker David Datro Fofana. Noni Madueke also agreed to a six-and-a-half-year contract with Chelsea after the arrival of Ukrainian winger Mudryk.

Following Wesley Fofana, a defender, moving to Stamford Bridge on a seven-year contract, left-back Marc Cucurella signed a six-year contract to join the club last summer. Raheem Sterling joined the Blues from Manchester City after signing a five-year deal.

Chelsea has spent roughly £450 million since last summer, but their ability to play by the rules is made feasible by the players’ long-term contracts.

The Premier League’s profit and sustainability criteria and, because the Blues frequently compete in European competition, Uefa’s FFP guidelines, are two sets of laws that the team must follow.

The present Uefa regulations allow clubs to spend up to 5 million euros (£4.4 million) more than they make over three years. If the club’s owner fully covers it, they can go over this amount up to a cap of 30 million euros (£26.6 million).