Chelsea have been told they could face a 12-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainaibility rules (PSR) if their ‘clever dancing’ barristers fail to get loopholes approved.
Both Everton and Nottingham Forest were handed points deductions last season for breaching PSR rules, which state that a Premier League club can’t make losses of over £105m over a rolling three-year period.
Chelsea’s latest financial report showed the London club owned by Todd Boehly reduced their losses under PSR last year by selling two hotels on the Stamford Bridge in an intra-company deal for £76m.
There are no rules preventing Chelsea from using this method to skirt the rules, so long as the hotels were sold for a fair market value, but the deal hasn’t shown up on the Land Registry, which adds to the mystique, and neither Chelsea nor the Premier League have made a statement on the matter.
Boehly also sold the Chelsea women’s team to parent company BlueCo lats month in a bid to circumnavigate the PSR rules again.
Former Everton CEO Keith Wyness, who now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs, believes avoiding a PSR breach and a hefty points deduction will come down to the cleverness of the barristers involved.
He told Football Insider: “We are looking at a serious points deduction.
“In this case, we could possibly be looking at up to 12. There has certainly been no cooperation as far as I can see.
“There was a big rush of spending. We can all remember Graham Potter coming in and they were buying everybody from Brighton.
“Getting the loopholes approved is down to really clever dancing on the head of a pin language with the barristers.
“There may be a way through it. I’m not saying they won’t be successful, but it doesn’t feel right gut-wise in terms of them getting away with this.
“We will see how this develops, but there could be a serious sanction.
“It will all depend on the cleverness of the silks, which is an unfortunate part of football today.”
Content by: Will Ford
