Football finance expert’s verdict on potential European ban

September 4, 2024Ligue 1

Chelsea’s finances have long been under scrutiny since the club were taken over by BlueCo.

Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly have seemingly ensured that some creative accounting practices have taken place in order that the club have been able to sign the likes of Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and others.

The loophole for amortising player values across the entirety of very long (up to nine year) contracts has now been closed, though that brilliant piece of business acumen has certainly served the club well in this initial period of BlueCo ownership.

Chelsea won’t be banned from Europe… yet

As has selling assets – such as the hotels at Stamford Bridge – to a sister company, in order to offset any losses.

It won’t win the Blues any friends amongst their opponents, but whether it’s felt that the Blues are massaging FFP to their advantage is a moot point.

Suggestions of a potential European ban for the same would appear to be wide of the mark too according to one football finance expert.

Todd Boehly and Behdad Egbali have come up with some creative accounting practices at Chelsea.

“The way the Uefa rules work is they set out tariffs for a failure (of FFP),” ex-Man City employee, Stefan Borson, told Football Insider.

“The more you fail, the bigger the fine. I think eventually they do have a wider range of rights around potentially excluding clubs from competitions.

“But I don’t think Chelsea are anywhere near that at this stage.”