AHEAD OF THE GAME

BLUES ACCUSED OF FFP DODGE

Chelsea have been accused of using long-term contracts to ‘cheat’ the Premier league’s Financial Fair Play rules. according to FIFa statutes, clubs are only permitted to give players contracts of up to five years, but Chelsea have been routinely handing out far longer deals this season. Ukraine winger Mykhailo Mudryk signed for eight-and-a-half years and French defender Benoit Badiashile for six-and-a-half years this month, after the arrivals of Wesley Fofana and Marc Cucurella on sevenand six-year deals respectively last summer. Chelsea have got round FIFa’s restrictions by registering the additional years in each player’s contract as a club-triggered option to extend, but some of their Premier league rivals are convinced this is really a ruse to circumnavigate FFP. Chelsea have spent a Premier league-record £416million on new players this season, an incredible outlay which has been possible only due to accounting rules that permit transfer fees to be spread across the duration of a player’s contract for FFP purposes. The £88m Mudryk fee will therefore cost Chelsea just £10m a year when they submit their accounts to the Premier league for FFP monitoring at the end of the season.