Chelsea are spending a whopping 611.5 million euros on the transfer market this season. Of this, almost 330 million euros are attributable to this winter. The English club thus spends more than the Bundesliga, Spanish, French and Italian leagues combined. gigantism, which also represents a bet on the future.
Do you remember the legendary fax machine at Hamburger SV that was on strike, which prevented Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting from moving to 1. FC Köln in January 2011? While the striker is now playing at FC Bayern via detours and is valued there, everyone actually thought that such mishaps as then would be a thing of the past. But now Hakim Ziyech should have a longer chat with Choupo-Moting about what staying at the club involuntarily can entail.
Because the loan of the winger from Chelsea to Paris St. Germain failed due to formal carelessness on the part of the Blues. French media consistently report that Chelsea sent the wrong document on multiple occasions, a total of three times. As a result, PSG were unable to register the Moroccan international with the French league association LFP in time. “Basically, Chelsea were only thinking about buying Enzo Fernández and so weren’t necessarily very attentive to the deal with PSG for Ziyech,” wrote Radio France’s Bruno Salomon on Twitter. The documents arrived after the transfer deadline, Ziyech was rejected as a new PSG player – PSG’s appeal was dismissed.
A source at PSG told The Athletic that the failure was a “top class circus”. Actually, Chelsea could have used it well to give up a player. Your squad now consists of 33 men – is massively bloated. With the new signings Joao Felix, Mykhaylo Mudryk and Noni Madueke, three newcomers could appear on Ziyech’s regular position on the right wing.
The 29-year-old hasn’t really had a chance so far this season, even without the competition from the newcomers. He has only made ten appearances in the Premier League, he has not yet been able to contribute a goal, he has only provided one. But now he will have to stay in London.
For Chelsea, the loan move would not only have freed up some space in the bloated squad, it would also have eased the burden on their wallets – although Ziyech is unlikely to matter much given the galactic sums Chelsea bosses are handling. According to transfermarkt.de, the club spent an unbelievable 329.5 million euros on new players in the winter transfer period alone. That’s more money than the Bundesliga (68.2m), La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 combined. Only Jorginho was sold to Arsenal for 11.3 million euros and Malo Gusto, who is still on loan to Olympique Lyon.
The entire transfer balance of this season is deep in the red at Chelsea. Total expenditure of 611.5 million euros is offset by income of just 67.8 million euros. Makes 543.7 million euros bad. It was “very wild, you just have to say that,” commented Sebastian Kehl, sports director of Bundesliga soccer club Borussia Dortmund, on Sky about the transfer behavior of the upcoming Champions League opponent. “Money is not an issue there.”
He added: “We simply have to earn our money in a different way here, which is why we are not in a position to implement such transfers.” The most expensive purchase of the Chelsea owners around Todd Boehly is Enzo Fernandez. The 22-year-old Argentinian, who starred alongside Lionel Messi at the World Cup, joined the Thames from Benfica for €121m on Deadline Day. According to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, the sum should be paid off in six installments.
Fernandez’s contract is correspondingly long: until 2031. Mudryk’s contract, the 21-year-old, who moved from Shakhtar Donetsk to London for a total of 100 million euros, also has the same expiration. 70 million euros go into the transfer fee, another 30 million euros are to come from bonus payments. Madueke came from PSV Eindhoven for €35m, for whom he had played since the Under-17s. He had only made five appearances in the Eredivisie this season due to an ankle injury. But money is no obstacle for billionaire Boehly.
But is there such a thing as financial fair play? Well, the long contract terms make sense from a Chelsea perspective because of these requirements, which are actually intended to promote sustainable management: the transfer money is easier to write off, it can be spread over many years, and financial fair play is better off. That’s why Wesley Fofana, Noni Madueke and Benoit Badiashile also have working papers that bind them to 2029 or 2030. While transfer fees for arrivals are amortized over the life of their contracts, transfer proceeds for departures are booked immediately in one go. Thus, multiple high-profile additions can easily be offset on the balance sheets with a single sale. This is particularly worthwhile for players who have already completely written off or come from their own offspring.
And at the same time, the associations allow new leeway. From the 2023/24 season, the permissible limit for losses will double from 30 million euros to 60 million euros. Clubs judged to be financially healthy are given an additional €30m in allowable losses over a three-year monitoring period, meaning Chelsea can lose up to €90m over three years. It’s three times the old limit.
For the past three years, the debt should only be about six million euros higher than approved, reports the football financial analyst Swiss Ramble. Other parameters would also result in a maximum of minor offenses. Chelsea will probably have relatively little to fear, as a look at the past shows. UEFA recently imposed fines, of which only a small percentage had to be paid immediately. If conditions were met, the remainder would be forfeited. That shouldn’t be a big concern for Boehly and Co.
There are loopholes in the financial fair play rules that Chelsea exploit. The associations UEFA and FIFA are said to be working on plugging them. From the summer, transfer expenses for a player can be spread over a maximum of five years, even if the contract should run longer.
The financial leeway has no relevance for sport. For Chelsea, it’s all about damage limitation this season. Coach Graham Potter was set to lead the team back to the top after Boehly sacked Thomas Tuchel 100 days after taking office. The coach, bought from Brighton, and his team did not succeed after an interim upswing. Only in the Champions League did Chelsea confidently qualify as group winners for the round of 16. In the FA Cup, it was already over in the third round, and the team lost 4-0 to league competitor Manchester City. In the Premier League, the club is only tenth, the places that would qualify for international competition are far away.
This, of course, has financial implications. The club could lose millions of euros next season if they don’t qualify for international competition. And this is where purchasing policy could come into play again. All players from the winter transfer window are 23 years old or younger. Your commitment represents a bet on the future: In the worst case, the players turn out to be not as good as hoped, then Boehly and Co. have lost the bet. Because the players don’t have to worry about it – apart from their sporting ambition. Your future is secured. In addition, Chelsea have already spent money that would only be available to them in the coming transfer windows. In the event of a sporting failure, Boehly and Co. don’t have as much chance of boosting success with player purchases. But if they hit and develop further, they will play a key role in the club in the future – and bring sporting success, prestige and ultimately money if they increase their resale value.
It is clear that Chelsea will not go shopping so extensively every year. But Kehl emphasized that the business was highly competitive. BVB must be “even faster when it comes to commitments, we have to be there earlier. That makes it challenging, but we can still do it”.
