Chelsea could win their first trophy of the Todd Bohely era and that would win a place in the Europa Conference League.
The Blues take on Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday and victory would earn Mauricio Pochettino’s side a place in the Europa Conference League qualifying rounds.
This could bring new Financial Fair Play [FFP] challenges and could see drastic action taken.
Chelsea, though, must comply with UEFA’s club licensing and financial sustainability regulations (FSR).
Though the club may need to accept a ban to stay in line with the above regulations and go down the route that AC Milan took in 2019.
“It could be in Chelsea’s interests to do the same as Milan,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told The Athletic.
“We’re moving into the realms of three-dimensional chess here, which some clubs are capable of playing.
“By the time you pay the players’ bonuses for qualifying for the competition, transport, accommodation and other costs, you’re only making a small amount of money from the Conference League.
“You’ll struggle to get a decent number of fans to attend Stamford Bridge if the opposition is modest. That isn’t a criticism of them. It’s modern-day economics.
“If they are exceeding the UEFA limits, the question becomes: ‘Do we want to go and play in the Conference League next season?’. Because they won’t make any money from it.”
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AC Milan voluntarily accepted a one-year ban from all European competitions five years ago for breaching UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
Todd Boehly has spent over £1billion on transfer fees in the first two years of his ownership at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea are only required to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) as things stand.
Such a rule allows them to lose up to £105m over a three-year period, which ended on June 30 of last year.
Clubs in European competitions can be permitted to lose up to £68.5m for the 2024–25 monitoring period.
So, £68.5m over the previous two years, not £105m over the previous three years, if they win the Carabao Cup and qualify for the Europa Conference League next season.
It is likely that Chelsea will need to conduct player sales before the end of June 30 to be able to comply with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules and ensure they are not sanctioned.
Listen to live commentary of Chelsea’s clash with Liverpool at Wembley on talkSPORT.
