European football governing body UEFA has announced changes that will affect Chelsea, Juventus and other European teams in the new Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, News About Nigeria reports.
UEFA on Wednesday revealed that teams will no longer be allowed to play tricky games to sign players or participate in the continent’s elite competitions through fraudulent means.
In the new announcement, the body introduced a limit of five years for players signed into a club, even if the contract is longer.
It stated this in a bid to stop Chelsea’s tactic of signing new squad members to very long contracts to enable them to spread the amortisation.
This rule is set to prevent a repeat of Chelsea’s massive spending spree, as witnessed in the 2022/23 season when they spent about £600 million on new players.
The marathon spending happened under the club’s new owner Todd Boehly, in a bid to get the club back in form, even though that is now far from the reality.
Arguably UEFA also made the changes as it will demand closer analysis of capital gains after Juventus artificially inflated transfer fees to boost capital gains, causing them a 10-point deduction in the Serie A and consequently, nonparticipation in the next campaign Champions League.
Other items on the agenda were adjustments to various competitions, including renaming the Europa Conference League to the Conference League.
FFP is also changing the squad cost ratio so that a club’s spending on salaries, transfers, and commissions cannot go beyond 70% of the club’s revenue.
However, that has been scheduled to be in full swing by the 2025/2026 season, as it will be introduced gradually starting at 90% in 2023/2024 and 80% in 2024/2025.
The rules will further hold clubs to maintain “international accounting principles” while calculating capital gains.
