If ever there was a club that typified the expression ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game’, it is Chelsea. While Newcastle United, ‘the richest club in the world’, struggle to compete with top clubs in terms of wages, we have Chelsea still spending money like it’s going out of fashion thanks to some clever accounting.
Chelsea have sold hotels, car parks and even the women’s team to themselves to avoid PSR sanctions and to inflate their headroom, allowing them to spend continuously in each transfer window.
And it’s not like we’re talking about players coming in for one or two million on £30,000-a-week contracts. We are talking big signings on mega money.
Now, football finance expert Kieran Maguire has been speaking on Rio Ferdinand’s podcast about the latest figures regarding PSR headroom, in which Newcastle are said to have about £80 million to play with, while Chelsea top the table with £300 million.
Chelsea are operating in the grey area within the PSR boundaries
It’s hard to blame Chelsea for what they’re doing, they see loopholes and dive right through them like dolphins at Sea World, and the fact that the club owners had the chance to close the loophole and didn’t take it is absolute madness purely because it’s only Chelsea who seem to have the stones to exploit it.
If it has been left open, then why aren’t Newcastle selling their own assets back to themselves? Aston Villa are in PSR trouble. Why aren’t they doing it?
It’s because they know that as soon as a club from outside of the Cartel tries it, that loophole will be closed up faster than you can say ‘money laundering’.
The loophole remains open, so why aren’t Newcastle exploiting it?
As Kieran Maguire explains how Chelsea’s figures are so high after selling the women’s team and a couple of car parks back to themselves, he’s asked: “Is this legal?”.
It is, and it remains so after the club voted to keep the loophole open. So there is literally nothing stopping Newcastle from doing the same … as things stand.
We absolutely despise PSR in its current form, so if there are ways to exploit it, we encourage the club to do it. We’re not experts by any means, and we’re not even sure what assets the club has that they could sell back to themselves, but we’re already leaving money on the table by not having stadium, training ground and training kit sponsors, so let’s not let this opportunity pass us by too.
It is worth mentioning, however, that Chelsea could still be in trouble with UEFA as this loophole doesn’t exist in their rules and that will cause a problem when playing in European competitions, but we’re still waiting to see how that will be handled.
