UEFA have confirmed Chelsea have avoided further sanctions relating to the cost of their Champions League squad.
The Blues were fined a total of €31 million (£26.9 million, $36.1 million) back in July after being found to have breached regulations relating to excessive spending and overall squad costs, with a further €60 million sanction threatened if Chelsea did not reduce the cost of their European squad this summer.
Chelsea needed to report a positive transfer balance from players registered in last season’s ‘List A’ from their Conference League registration. Sales of unregistered and fringe players, such as João Félix, Carney Chukwuemeka and Renato Veiga, did not count towards the balance.
Fortunately for Chelsea, they did manage to negotiate exits for a number of their ‘List A’ players. Noni Madueke, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Christopher Nkunku, Mathis Amougou and Nicolas Jackson all departed the club, helping Chelsea meet UEFA’s pre-agreed requirements.
A UEFA statement (via the ) read: “The squad list submitted fulfilled the criteria of the settlement agreement and it was therefore already reviewed and approved before publication on UEFA's website.”
By reaching a positive balance, Chelsea were then freed to register all their new signings in what ended up as a 23-man European squad.
