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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Giuseppe Muro

Chelsea cannot ‘buy players at any price’ with FFP ‘starting to get teeth’, insists new owner Todd Boehly

Todd Boehly has warned that Chelsea cannot buy new players at any price this summer

(Picture: Getty Images)

New Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has warned the club will not be able to buy players at any price because "Financial Fair Play is starting to get some teeth".

Chelsea have had 19 years of significant spending under Roman Abramovich and Thomas Tuchel is set to have a transfer budget of around £200million this summer.

But, following his £4.25bn deal to buy Chelsea from Abramovich alongside private equity firm Clearlake Capital, American businessman Boehly said: "Financial Fair Play is starting to get some teeth and that will limit ability to acquire players at any price.

"UEFA takes it seriously and will continue to take it seriously. [More teeth] means financial penalties and disqualification from competitions."

During talks between Boehly and Tuchel following the takeover of Chelsea, the pair agreed the need to rebuild the team.

Sevilla centre-back Jules Kounde could be the first signing under the new owners, while Chelsea have also been linked with a move for Denzel Dumfries from Inter Milan.

Boehly will take up the role of controlling owner and plans to spend much of the summer in the UK to oversee a crucial transfer window.

He has spoken about the intention of the new Chelsea owners to adopt the US model of data analysis for player recruitment.

"If you look at the models that are very successful, Liverpool is a great model," said Boehly.

"Liverpool generates a couple of hundred million more revenue than Chelsea and they generate earnings, so there is an opportunity to compete."

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