Chelsea face major summer ‘fire sale’ to comply with Financial Fair Play rules after recording losses of over £120million

Chelsea face a major summer clearout in a bid to comply with the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play regulations, it has been reported.

The Blues have embarked on a major spending spree since Todd Boehly arrived at Stamford Bridge, but after recording losses of £121million for last season, several players could be chopped.

The Times report that after splashing out nearly £600m on player sales over the past two transfer windows, the west Londoners must find a way to balance the books – given the expectation they will miss out on Champions League football.

Graham Potter’s side are tenth, 11 points off the top four and face Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals, so there might be a huge drop off in European revenue.

The transfer spending and the new players’ wages can be spread out over an extended period of time by a process known as amortisation.

But the money Chelsea have spent is significant and will leave the club close to the maximum loss of £105m over three years, according to football finance expert Kieran Maguire.

This three-year period currently includes the 2019/20 season but will soon be replaced by the club’s financial figures leading up to June 2023.

And Maguire suggested Boehly and co could sell players in an effort to comply with the top-flight’s rules.

“The one thing Chelsea have in their favour is that they have a very large squad, so they are in a position to raise money by selling players in the summer,” Maguire explained. “We have already seen speculation about Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher being sold.”

However, it’s understood if Chelsea are to use any money from player sales this summer in their current accounts, they must be sold by June 30.

But given the 2022 summer transfer window opened on June 10 last year, that doesn’t give the Blues very long to act.

Chelsea will be keen to avoid a similar charge to what has been presented against Everton. However, they might argue that last year’s government sanctions had an impact – to prevent any Premier League punishment.

The west-London based club were placed under a special license after former owner Roman Abramhovich was sanctioned for his reported links to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.

Under the license, Chelsea were restricted in several areas, including selling tickets, accepting event bookings and signing contracts with players.

Those restrictions were lifted at the end of May when Boehly’s consortium agreed a takeover and began pumping money into the club.

But the Blues might still try to claim the government license has impacted this season.

Chelsea recorded a profit of £123m from player sales for the previous year, but increased wages, lower Champions League income and the COVID pandemic saw those profits wiped out – leaving the Blues in a tricky situation.