Chelsea risk being banned from European competitions thanks to a new financial rule.
The Blues are facing a challenge to comply with UEFA’s financial rules after the European governing body confirmed its stance on registering income.
According to The Times, UEFA will not allow clubs to register earnings from selling assets to sister companies.
This is a loophole co-owner Todd Boehly and Clearlake have used having sold two of Chelsea‘s hotels to a sister company for £76.5million.
Meanwhile, the women’s team was sold to the club’s parent company two days before the end of the financial year in June.
The Premier League is yet to close these loopholes, meaning Chelsea have been allowed to register the sales as registered income.
But UEFA will take a tougher stance, something that could cause problems for Chelsea down the line.
This loophole is banned by the English Football League for clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two.
It’s understood any sanction or settlement for breaching UEFA’s financial rules would not impact Chelsea’s involvement in this season’s Conference League.
However, if Chelsea did fail to comply it could result in exclusion from European football next season.
Exclusion from UEFA’s competitions is one of the potential punishments, along with financial penalties and other sanctions.
UEFA did stress, however, that all cases would have to be assessed individually by its independent panel.
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UEFA’s financial regulations are already tougher than those of the Premier League.
The Premier League’s Profit And Sustainability Rules permit clubs to lose a maximum of £105million over a rolling three-year period.
But UEFA’s ‘football earnings’ rule means that clubs can lose just £34.5million over two season.
Upon publishing their latest accounts in April, Boehly reaffirmed that Chelsea were in line to subscribe with UEFA rules to quash any talk of trouble.
That’s despite spending almost £1.2billion on transfers since arriving in May 2022.
That includes another huge summer of transfer business in which big-money deals to sign Pedro Neto, Joao Felix and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall were offset by key departures of Conor Gallagher and Ian Maatsen to Atletico Madrid and Aston Villa respectively.
