A potential Premier League investigation into the club's substantial losses from the previous season may prompt Chelsea to defend itself by pointing to the loss of earnings from Antonio Rudiger's free transfer to Real Madrid.
The west London team has disclosed that the team lost £121 million in the 2021–2022 season. Due to a transfer embargo put in place as a result of breaking 150 rules, Chelsea only turned a profit of £32.5 million during the 2019–20 season. The previous year, they had a deficit of £153.4 million.
The club may face criticism once more as the three-year rolling sum of their records reveals an unfavorable £241.9 million deficit, well beyond the permitted maximum of £105 million under the Premier League's financial fair play regulations.
By blaming the government sanctions imposed on the club's previous owner Roman Abramovich in March 2022, Chelsea has initiated a preventive attack to counter any potential sanctions related to their most recent financial situation.
After Vladimir Putin led the country to invade Ukraine in February of that year, the British government penalized a number of people, including the Russian tycoon Abramovich. According to the Daily Mail, as part of the club's efforts to defend the enormous losses, Chelsea, which Abramovich purchased in 2003, is expected to use these restrictions as an explanation for why Rudiger had to leave on a free transfer.
Chelsea said in a statement that "the fines issued on the Club's previous owner on March 10, 2022 have had an influence on the results for the year." The Club was forced to operate within the restrictions of a unique license provided by the UK government as a result of the sanctions. These limitations were in effect up until May 30, 2022, when the Club's sale was finalized.
"The Club was constrained in a number of areas during this time, including, but not limited to, its ability to sell matchday and season tickets, merchandise, accept event bookings, as well as sign contracts with players and commercial sponsorship partners, which resulted in extraordinary expenses and loss of revenue."
Rudiger was formally revealed as a Real Madrid player on June 2, 2022, after spending five years on Chelsea's books during which time he won five trophies. The then-29-year-contract old's was about to expire, so Chelsea received no transfer fee for him. However, the Blues plan to argue that Rudiger's deal was only allowed to expire because negotiations for an extension were stymied because of the government sanctions.
Chelsea believes they have a strong case to make that the absence of a transfer fee had a direct influence on their losses for that particular year because Rudiger joined Real Madrid before June 30, 2022, and therefore during the financial year of 2021/22. Andreas Christensen signed a free transfer to join Barcelona that same summer but didn't arrive in Catalonia until July 4, 2022, after the interest window had closed.
Chelsea have not yet received any charges from the Premier League or UEFA, the organization that oversees European football and has its own financial fair play guidelines, but it is believed that they are preparing for inspection.
Chelsea made the initial claim that "...some of these limitations are also expected to have an impact on the financials in the following years due to the long-term impact from restrictions on entering into new contractual arrangements" in an effort to safeguard themselves against future financial difficulties.
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