Since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital Group bought Chelsea Football Club in May 2022, the club has spent well over £400 million on transfers alone, with the potential for more money to be spent in the coming weeks.
Such a significant investment over the course of just two transfer windows has left fans scratching their heads, wondering how Chelsea are managing to navigate UEFA's Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFP) without being sanctioned.
Introduced in 2011, FFP stop clubs from spending more than they earn in the pursuit of success, ensuring their long-term survival. The regulations allow clubs to be sanctioned who, over several seasons, have exceeded spending.
While Chelsea have forked out excessive sums on transfers in a little over six months, they are still working within the FFP framework due to the way they structure their deals.
Indeed, while they signed Mykhaylo Mudryk for £88m from Shakhtar Donetsk, they have done so while offering him an eight-and-a-half year contract. Consequently, Chelsea can spread the cost of the transfer over the course of that contract, so, in effect, they're only paying a little more than £10m a year for Mudryk.
This allows the London side to make further signings because they're not exceeding spending over several seasons, as the regulations state. Aside from the loan signing of Joao Felix, and 33-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, every other Chelsea signing has received at least a five-year contract, even including the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly and Raheem Sterling.
In fact, this structuring of deals is part of the reason why Chelsea failed to agree terms with Benfica for the transfer of Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernandez. Despite matching his £105m release clause, Benfica couldn't agree to the instalments Chelsea were insisting on paying for him.
Sales will also aid the Blues in signing more players, keeping their net transfer spend as low as possible. With an increasingly bloated squad, Chelsea are reportedly willing to listen to offers for a number of players in this January transfer window - including Raheem Sterling, who only joined the club in July.
Recouping their previous expenditure to buy more players is clearly of paramount importance to Chelsea working within FFP, hence why they're willing to let players leave the club.
