It would be fair to say that Chelsea have made the most of some unique methods to get around their big spending since the new owners came in to the club.
Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali have put their money where their mouth is in terms of transfer fees, and while they have moved on plenty of players for good fees, they have needed to do more to balance the books.
The Blues previously used contracts as long as eight or nine years that allowed Chelsea to ammortise player transfer fees over an extended period, before that avenue was shut down.
Chelsea sold two hotels on the site of Stamford Bridge to balance the books in the past, despite great criticism from their rivals in their process.
This continued when they announced they had sold their women’s team too, with talks over a fine for Chelsea for this method, however not before Chelsea had racked up an estimated £271m.
Chelsea could spark ‘pure carnage’ amongst Premier League clubs after £271m ‘cheat code’
According to The Times, Premier League clubs are set to vote to close this avenue of making money on the books too, with Finance expert Adam Williams exclusively telling The Chelsea Chronicle that there is a good chance this happens.
He said: “The last time this was put to a vote, only 11 clubs voted in favour of closing this loophole, whereby clubs trade tangible assets to generate an artificial profit for the profit-and-loss account and, by extension, PSR. You need 14 clubs for a vote to pass, so if you have seven clubs acting as a bloc, that’s effectively a veto.
“It’s worth noting that both the EFL and UEFA have closed this loophole. There is, I would say, a broad consensus that it isn’t in the spirit of PSR.
“The reason it was rejected last time, as far as I understand, was because of the way the amendment was drafted, not because all of the clubs who voted against the revisions were necessarily against the rule change in principle.
“So I think as long as the Premier League get the drafting right this time around, there is a better chance that is passes. That said, there are some clubs who I would predict will vote against it.
“Chelsea, you would presume, will want to keep it open. The only factor that might change that is if they feel they have generated sufficient PSR headroom from the sales of the hotels, women’s team and the like and now they want to pull up the ladder behind them.
“That would cause pure carnage among rivals, of course, but they would use the same PSR cheat code if it was also in their own self-interest.“
Other clubs could join Chelsea’s side in PSR saga
Williams continued to state that a number of Premier League sides could join Chelsea’s side in these negotiations.
He said: “Other than that, Aston Villa are said to be exploring the sale of the women’s team to themselves and are no fans of PSR. I think you can assume they will want this option to remain available.
“Maybe Newcastle too. Given that PIF have said they will always spend to the limit of PSR, it would make sense for them to create more headroom by hook or by crook.
“I think Man United too would like to at least have this option available to them. There are a handful of others who, from the outside, might be tempted to side with that bloc. It will be interesting to see the results.”
