Why Chelsea HAVEN’T been charged

As Everton and Nottingham Forest were charged for breaches of Premier League spending rules on Monday, plenty wondered why Chelsea weren’t alongside them.

It’s well-documented that the Blues have splashed out over £1billion on new signings since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took over the club in May 2022.

Yet despite an outlay on players dwarfing that of their rivals, Chelsea have not breached the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), their version of financial fair play.

So while Everton — who have already been docked 10 points this season — were hit with a fresh charge and Forest await their fate as well, Chelsea were safely within the limits.

As we explain here, it doesn’t all come down to outlay on players.

Everton were handed their 10-point deduction earlier this season because they recorded a loss of £124.5m over the previous accounting period. The Toffees are in the process of appealing their sanction.

So £105m is the magic number Chelsea — and all top-flight clubs — need to come in below with their accounts. But Chelsea’s spending has come in at 10 times that!

Yes, and that’s not even including arrivals in the 2023 summer window — including an initial £100m for Moises Caicedo, £53m for Romeo Lavia, £52m for Christopher Nkunku and £40m for Cole Palmer - which pushed the Boehly-era spend above £1bn.

For the purposes of the latest PSR assessment, only the two transfer windows in 202223 are counted. Nine players were signed in the summer of 2022, including Wesley Fofana for £75m, Marc Cucurella for £60m and Raheem Sterling for £47.5m.

Chelsea then laid out for eight more players in January 2023, including Enzo Fernandez for £106.7m, Mykhailo Mudryk for £62m and Benoit Badiashile for £35m.