Chelsea’s new owners have dug the club into a vast financial hole over the last couple of years. They’ve spent colossal sums of money and handed out 7 and 8 year contracts.
Their strategy has been to spread out payments – both in terms of transfer fees and wages – over the long term. This is to take advantage of the “amortisation” of the deal, which allowed them to effectively use up their future budgets in the present, by paying over time.
Not only has the plan been an utter failure in terms of improving the team – who look far worse than they did before a billion was spent on them – it’s also possibly going to come back to bite them financially too.
The Guardian today report that the Premier League teams will vote to limit contract amortisation to 5 years, a move UEFA have already made to close up the loophole.
Such a ruling could even be backdated to include last summer’s business.
Our best hope is that the other big teams vote against such a move. It would need 14 votes in favour to be passed.
