How Chelsea can splurge more than £300m on transfers in record window and not breach Financial Fair Play rules

CHELSEA’S astonishing summer spend has left many rival fans questioning how the Blues can do it.

New owner Todd Boehly has sanctioned a recording-breaking transfer window which could yet see Chelsea break through the £400million barrier by tonight’s deadline.

When Financial Fair Play rules mean clubs cannot make massive losses, it is unsurprising that some supporters cannot see how Chelsea can do what they are doing.

But the reality is that football economics and REAL economics are not the same thing. Not even close.

And that allows Chelsea to spend, spend, spend – and still not be in danger of falling foul of the regulations.

Under current Premier League rules, Chelsea are allowed to lose £35m per season, while Uefa FFP regulations limit those losses to around £25m over a three year period.

But the impact of the Covid pandemic on incomes, with Prem clubs playing effectively behind closed doors for more than a season, has seen a loosening of the regulations.

And while those relaxations are now over, the way club expenditure and income is calculated also allows Chelsea to dig deep.

In 2020-21, after a season impacted by their Uefa transfer ban, then-boss Frank Lampard spent around £223m on acquiring players including Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Ben Chilwell, £72m Kai Havertz and Edouard Mendy.

Chelsea’s total receipts on players sold was £68.4m, for a nominal “loss” of £154m.

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But football accounting means that incoming transfer fees are spread over the length of the contract – a concept called “amortisation” – while all the money for sales and loans are booked at full value.

Likewise, last season’s transfers of Romelu Lukaku (at a club record £97.5m) and the loan fee for Saul meant an amortised spend of £24m, while sales including those of Fikayo Tomori, Mark Guehi, Tammy Abraham and Kurt Zouma banked £143.5m.

Of course, those amortised calculations mean that transfer fees are “paid” for the duration of contracts, ensuring a hefty wedge each season.

But it also means that the near-£250m that Chelsea had already spent this summer before Thursday morning only added around £40.6m to their official FFP spend, a figure almost exactly balanced by incoming fees.

For example, the announcement that Wesley Fofana signed a contract until 2029 means his £70m cost will be spread across seven years of accounts, at £10m per season.

Chelsea’s latest accounts, for the 2020-21 season, stated a turnover of £434.9m and a loss of £153.4m.

But last season, with fans back inside Stamford Bridge, the club were on course for income nudging the £500m mark before the government sanctions on former owner Roman Abramovich restricted income.

Even that issue can help the new owners too. By paying off the £1.6bn debt owed to Abramovich, Chelsea’s financial slate was wiped clean.

Financial experts have estimated that Chelsea can spend in excess of £300m this season without coming close to being in FFP trouble.

And with Uefa introducing its new “financial stability” rules to take over from FFP as of January 1, there will almost certainly be limited punishment for clubs deemed to have fallen foul of the old regulations in the final year.

Chelsea’s position may not be rosy – and the Boehly plan to rebuild and modernise the Bridge is all about longer-term revenue generation.

But, for now, there seems no reason for Chelsea fans to worry. Unless the bean counters know something else….