Chelsea could be handed a bigger punishment from the Premier League than Everton for Financial Fair Play breaches, a former Manchester City financial adviser has argued.
The Premier League’s FFP regulations have come into focus in the past few months after Everton were deducted some 10 points back in November for breaching regulations.
The Toffees were subsequently charged again, alongside Nottingham Forest, in January for falling foul of spending rules that stipulate Premier League clubs are only allowed to lose £105million over a three-year rolling time frame.
City, meanwhile, are battling 115 charges that, if proven, could see the club stripped of titles, relegated, fined, or sued. They vehemently deny the claims against them.
Advert
Elsewhere, Chelsea have spent over £1billion in the transfer market since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the side in May 2022.
While they have also generated significant money through the sale of academy products, and amortised the fees of their big-money signings, a former City financial adviser has claimed the Blues could still fall foul of the Premier League’s spending rules.
Stefan Borson told TalkSPORT: “They've used the tricks of amortization. (But) in my mind, there’s certainly trouble on the horizon and they'll certainly fail FFP for the current season.
“This is unless, and it seems to be very unlikely, by June 30, they sell well over £100m worth of players.
“But the window they can now do that, with the (January) window shutting is going to be very small.
“The season is going to finish and then we've got the Euros. So if you look at someone like Conor Gallagher, if Chelsea want to sell before June 30, they'll have to move very quickly.
“And again, likely buyers are going to know that Chelsea need to sell players.'
Borson also suggested the Blues could face a harsher punishment than Everton.
He added: “This breach Chelsea are lined up for is much bigger than Everton's breach.
“And most importantly from an aggravating perspective, they (Premier League) will consider it (a) deliberate (breach).
“Chelsea can't hide behind building a stadium or inadvertently breaching FFP.
“The accounting period is not over yet, let's be fair to Chelsea.
“But I have people telling me you sell Conor Gallagher for £60m, Armando Broja for £40m, Reece James for £30m, whoever it is.
“But there's no buyers. There's no money in the game outside of the Premier League and the Premier League are not stupid.
“They're not going to bite on crazy prices for players they don't rate that highly when they know Chelsea are over a barrel.”
Speaking to the Telegraph in December, Chelsea insisted they were not in breach of FFP rules, while they did not spend a penny on new signings in January.
SPORTbible has approached Chelsea for comment.
Topics: Football, Chelsea, Todd Boehly, Premier League
Chris Byfield