Football has a brand new frontier to battle on and it's not the pitch, but rather the court rooms. The beautiful game as we all know it has had the stakes increased dramatically since the influx of money from the creation of the Premier League in 1992 and with it comes plenty of red tape and legal jargon.
The English Football League is no stranger to dealing with such issues when it comes to financial rules being breached, however this is relatively new when it comes to the top flight. Manchester City were the first team to be alleged with breaking of profit and sustainability rules earlier this year, while Everton have joined them closely after.
Both cases, which will now be sent to independent panels for review, will likely be landmark occasions for how the division handles its issues with money going forward. Chelsea will be keen to avoid such a legal entanglement for the foreseeable future after a large spending spree under new owners Boehly-Clearlake.
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Over £500million has been spent by the American consortium since their takeover in May last year, which has raised some eyebrows across world football. The Blues are able to do this through long contracts handed out to younger players, which means their amortisation - or rate of depreciation of a player's contract value on the balance sheet at the end of a financial year - is lower than standard contracts and the side make less of a loss each year.
That's funded the rebuild thus far, which comes with its risks, though the club are still potentially treading carefully when it comes to the financial aspect overall. On Thursday, Chelsea published their accounts for the previous season, showing a recorded loss of £121million.
The club state that some of that is impacted by sanctions placed on former owner Roman Abramovich ahead of the sale of the club. That loss follows on from losing £153.4million the year prior, while before that there was a £32.5million profit. Profit and sustainability rules are calculated over a three-year period, meaning that posted profit will not be included in next year's accounts.
As a result, the Blues face a potential fire sale as the Times reports that a whole host of Chelsea stars face being available to leave to ensure the club can recuperate some of that money spent. If Boehly wishes for that to be put through for the next financial year, the deals will have to be completed by June 30 to be counted towards the total, otherwise it rolls onto the following season.
Plenty of players continued to be linked with a possible exit in the summer, with the likes of Mason Mount, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mateo Kovacic just a few with just over 12 months remaining on their deal that have been touted with exits. football.london understands Liverpool are seriously interested in the England international and are preparing to make a move for the midfielder in the summer should the situation remain unsolved.
It remains to be seen whether the club will need to sell to comply with the rules in place, however there's a clear deadline if that proves to be the case.
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