Kai Havertz switched to Chelsea for 80 million euros. It is questionable whether he will stay in London beyond the summer. Image: www.imago-images.de / imago images
analysis
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang should have been happy at the beginning of November. After all, the draw for the Champions League round of 16 ensured that his team met his former club Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.
Under Thomas Tuchel, he won the cup with BVB in the 2016/17 season and, with 31 goals, was the last top scorer in the Bundesliga whose name was not Robert Lewandowski.
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But Aubameyang will be neither on the pitch nor on the bench on Wednesday night – he has been dropped from the Blues’ Champions League squad. Like his former coach Thomas Tuchel, the striker fell victim to Chelsea’s billion-euro offensive around new owner Todd Boehly.
The whole football world has been asking itself for weeks: How can this actually work despite the Uefa rules on financial sustainability?
BVB coach Terzić confused by Chelsea’s shopping spree
Chelsea signed eight new players for more than 281 million euros last summer under Thomas Tuchel.
With Tuchel’s dismissal in September and the new coach Graham Potter, the whole thing was provisionally crowned. Chelsea paid 24 million euros to Brighton Hove & Albion for the new coach, only to strike again in the winter transfer window.
In winter it was another 330 million euros that the Blues paid for seven new players. In total, Chelsea have recorded over 600 million euros in transfer spending.
With so many players, it’s easy to lose track. Especially since only three players were allowed to be registered for the Champions League. BVB coach Edin Terzić joked at the press conference before the game: “It’s not clear what line-up they’ll be in here.”
The problem: Potter needs time to convey his game idea to the team. The team is not exactly more successful than under Tuchel, who after all won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021.
Chelsea tricks with contract terms
Against the in-form BVB, Chelsea is anything but the favorite, in the league the situation looks even bleaker. Only tenth place, ten points behind fourth place in the Champions League.
If they do not qualify for the premier class, the Londoners will miss out on important income that participation in the new mode would entail.
In order to prevent this at least somewhat, the Chelsea bosses used a simple trick when signing newcomers to overturn Uefa’s financial rules.
Numerous newcomers signed contracts with terms until 2029 or 2030. The two top newcomers and attacking stars Mykhaylo Mudryk and world champion Enzo Fernández even signed until 2031.
The advantage: Chelsea can write off the respective transfer fees over the term of the contract. Fernandez is therefore not listed in the balance sheets with a transfer fee of over 120 million euros, but costs an average of just under 14 million euros a year.
However, income in the form of player sales is included in the income in one fell swoop. Chelsea sold Timo Werner back to RB Leipzig for 20 million euros in the summer – so they even have six million euros left compared to the Argentine. At least in theory.
Uefa wants to put a stop to Chelsea tricks
In order to limit this great influence of investors, Uefa actually introduced Financial Fair Play (FFP). However, after years of working rather badly than right, the association bosses are now hoping for more healthy management of the clubs through an adjustment.
The new regulations state that a deficit of income and expenditure of a maximum of 20 million euros may be compensated by an investor. A further ten million could be added by fulfilling certain conditions. In addition, the costs for the teams may only account for a maximum of 70 percent of the total income from the football business.
What helps Chelsea: These two requirements of Uefa’s newly created “Financial Sustainability and Club Licensing Regulations” are currently only gradually taking effect. So far, it is questionable whether they will really be used to the same extent from the 2025 season and will result in penalties in the event of violations.
According to “Sportschau”, offenses should not only be punished financially or sportingly, but also include forced relegation from the Champions League or Europa League.
So far, Chelsea’s long contract terms have been a thorn in the side of Uefa. According to the British “Times”, the association officials should strive to limit the contracts to a maximum of five years – this should even be adopted before the upcoming summer transfer window.
“If other clubs start doing the same thing with eight-year contracts, there will be chaos, so we have to protect them,” the Times quoted an anonymous Uefa source as saying.
Chelsea FC: Aubameyang only trains with the team
Aubameyang, on the other hand, only signed a short-term contract for two years until 2024 when he joined Chelsea. Chelsea actually wanted to loan the striker to Los Angeles FC in the USA for six months due to the new oversupply on the offensive. The clubs agreed, but the Gabonese didn’t think much of the idea. He dropped the deal.
And that’s despite the fact that he wasn’t even in the London squad on the past two matchdays. “I have nothing against him. I understand his disappointment but I have a responsibility to make such decisions and communicate them to the player.”explained Chelsea manager Graham Potter.
It should not be the last case of hardship in his tenure in London.
Manuel Neuer’s most recent interview has provided plenty to talk about at FC Bayern: After the Bayern bosses signed Yann Sommer, a second world-class keeper, and then also sacked goalkeeping coach and new confidante Toni Tapalović, the national keeper let his frustration run wild in a public interview. Board boss Oliver Kahn and sports director Hasan Salihamidžić then responded in the media.
