Other Games 2025-26

[lovejoy]

Nice not to be stressing about the Brighton result today. Hope they win to put pressure on Liverpool.

I fancy West Ham might get a win at Newcastle.

I don't, Brighton can get fucked, they seem to hate us for some reason and they're called 'Albion'.

And their owner is a twat.

[LeeS]

Liverpool as a massive club aren’t going away. So do we want more competition for a seat at the top table? I’d rather we just displaced Spurs and/or Chelsea. I’m not sure I want the UCL riches to go to a well run club like Brighton or Bournemouth.

Having said that, I’m a romantic at heart, so come on you “letter B” clubs!

[ADVILLAFAN]

Bournemouth probably the nicest pf the clubs that could get Champion's League.

I completely understand Brighton hating us. We always beat them and nearly always lose to their rivals Palace.

Brentford can get knotted, don't like them.

[Brend'Watkins]

I’ve got mates who are Brighton fans and they don’t hate the Villa, they respect and admire us. Generally, when you start being hated from all sides you know we’re doing well.

[JUAN PABLO]

its great chavski not in europe haaa         

[Percy McCarthy]

its great chavski not in europe haaa       

I take it most of us want them to beat Spurs on Tuesday. Will they have a chance then?

Also, wouldn’t qualifying for Europe inhibit their spending?

Edit: conference league if they finish eighth I think, Europa if they finish any higher.*

*I may well have got this wrong.

[Dave]

its great chavski not in europe haaa       

I take it most of us want them to beat Spurs on Tuesday. Will they have a chance then?

Also, wouldn’t qualifying for Europe inhibit their spending?

Wouldn't not qualifying for Europe also inhibit their spending?

[Nunkin1965]

Im happy that teams like Brighton and Bournemouth are putting real pressure on the established so called top 6.
We're here to stay as we've proven for pretty much 4 straight seasons, so its good that other clubs are finishing above them or at least getting close to them regularly.

[Percy McCarthy]

its great chavski not in europe haaa       

I take it most of us want them to beat Spurs on Tuesday. Will they have a chance then?

Also, wouldn’t qualifying for Europe inhibit their spending?

Wouldn't not qualifying for Europe also inhibit their spending?

Indeed. I was thinking maybe getting out from under their agreement with UEFA might be worse. I’m open to persuasion.

[Sexual Ealing]

I read a thing yesterday that suggested their ideal finish would be in the Conference League place, which would allow them to take a one-year ban from UEFA competition at no real cost to them, and that would be the bulk of their misdemeanors dealt with (it mentioned Juventus doing something similar a couple of years back). It could easily have been a load of mince, mind you.

[Dave]

its great chavski not in europe haaa       

I take it most of us want them to beat Spurs on Tuesday. Will they have a chance then?

Also, wouldn’t qualifying for Europe inhibit their spending?

Wouldn't not qualifying for Europe also inhibit their spending?

Indeed. I was thinking maybe getting out from under their agreement with UEFA might be worse. I’m open to persuasion.

This sums it all up nicely.

<general stuff about Chelsea being shit>

Why can’t Chelsea afford significant financial implications?

Because they are already firmly under UEFA’s microscope anyway. Chelsea were slapped – as football clubs in these situations must always be – with a £27m fine last year for breaching financial sustainability rules in 2023 and 2024.

Chelsea’s settlement agreement with UEFA put them under scrutiny for the next four years. This year will be fine. Chelsea’s Club World Cup success and Champions League participation will keep them on the happy side of par with UEFA.

So what’s the problem, then?

The future years. With UEFA slightly less gullible than the Premier League when it comes to trying to outmanoeuvre financial regulations by doing things like selling your own women’s team or a hotel to yourselves, it will be harder for Chelsea to wriggle out of any future breaches of their UEFA settlement.

Potential and increasingly likely problems for Chelsea here include an even heftier fine, not being allowed to register new players to their UEFA A squad, and eventually even a one-year ban from European competition.

Maybe it would be better not to qualify for Europe at all, then? Avoid some of those potential issues.

It’s one school of thought, and Chelsea’s players appear determined to give missing out on even the Thursday night competitions a red-hot crack anyway. But it comes with its own problems.

Most obviously, an even sharper reduction in income and a potentially even tougher time down the line trying to get on the right side of the ledger if they do get back into the Champions League.

But it also denies them another option that Italian clubs have deployed in the past; that is, to take their medicine and accept the one-year ban in a year when it only means missing out on the Europa League or Conference League rather than the big bucks of the Champions League.

Now it should be noted here that Chelsea themselves have always insisted they wouldn’t do this and don’t need to, but football finance experts have suggested it as a route they might consider and it would at least be an option on the table should they manage to secure qualification for one of the two lesser events.

What UEFA rules did Chelsea actually break?

UEFA have a ‘football earnings rule’ and a ‘squad cost rule’. The first is about how much can be spent against the revenue coming in, and the second is about how much of that money is ploughed into the first-team squad. Clubs are not allowed to go above 70 per cent, and Chelsea’s breaches put them between 80 and 90 per cent.

They must get that figure down below 70 per cent, yet have continued to invest heavily in players without it always appearing clear that it was with the intent of significantly improving the first team.

And they must avoid any repeat of 24/25’s vast losses – something that just got a lot more difficult.

How do they avoid breaking the rules again, then?

Beyond this season and with no Champions League football, with enormous difficulty.

Chelsea reported pre-tax losses in 2024/25 of £262m – a Premier League record – despite the club’s second-best ever revenue figure of £490.9m.

The impact of this season’s successes in the Club World Cup and making it to the last 16 of the Champions League is tipped to see that revenue figure rise to north of £700m for 25/26.

But that only highlights the freak one-off nature of this season’s revenue. With no Champions League and no Club World Cup, Chelsea will drop back to those 24/25 levels, at best.

And they simply cannot record another loss anywhere near that 24/25 figure.

There are allowances that UEFA will make, but any losses above £52.2m would trigger a fine up to £17.4m; losses over £69.7m and you’re looking at a one-year ban from European competition the next time they qualify.

So what will Chelsea do?

Despite their insistence that they’ve got all their ducks in a row and all the numbers figured out, it does seem unlikely they will be able to get next season’s numbers anywhere near the required targets without a significant change in their current approach to player trading.

Chelsea may have repeatedly ruled it out, but biting the bullet and taking a one-year ban in a season where it will be a Thursday night competition they miss rather than a possible Champions League season is definitely worth considering from a purely financial viewpoint.

A conservative estimate once extra ticketing, hospitality and sponsorship revenues are added to the £78.9m prize money they earned for this season’s run to just the last 16 of the Champions League would make it a nine-figure sum. The revenue from winning the Conference League amounted to something more like £15m. It’s a vast difference.

But still that serves only to mitigate the impact of a hugely serious sporting punishment. It seems inevitable that Chelsea will have to navigate the next few transfer windows more carefully than recent ones.

Difficult player sales will have to be considered – Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer two obvious star names who are already attracting significant interest but who will not be alone.

How has it come to this?

BlueCo have squandered what was a very comfortable PSR position since taking the reins at Chelsea. While they have avoided Premier League sanctions through the use of related-party transactions, most notably selling hotels and the women’s team to other companies owned by Chelsea’s parent company, 22 Holdco – something UEFA’s rules explicitly refuse to take into account – it is pretty wild they’ve even needed such chicanery in the first place.

Chelsea had a very strong PSR buffer when BlueCo came in, but they have now spent over £1.5bn on players without a significant improvement in on-field results.

The club does do good business in player sales, and that is the thinking behind their infamously long, amortised contracts and explains why bare revenue numbers remain strong even as the losses pile up.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has previously likened Chelsea’s player-trading model to a hedge fund, with players signed on long-term contracts with a view to long-term profit and reduced chance of losing players on Bosman frees.

But without on-field success, that model can only last so long.

Chelsea’s own accounts refer to success of the men’s first team as a ‘clear driver’ of revenues but the club remain reliant on owner funding and loans to subsidise the current business model.

The long-term implications are truly grisly. UEFA’s watchful eye is already a more than ticklish enough short-term concern.

Chelsea will appoint yet another new manager in the summer who will inevitably want to make the squad his own; that is a course that will now have to be navigated with great care.

[Hopadop]

Bournemouth probably the nicest pf the clubs that could get Champion's League.

I completely understand Brighton hating us. We always beat them and nearly always lose to their rivals Palace.

Brentford can get knotted, don't like them.

Bournemouth for me as well, if only because I like their art deco badge and Tommy Elphick's back there as an assistant manager, and he always seemed a good sort.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Napoli cruising into Champion's League.

As it Stands, Roma and Milan joining them and champions Inter.

Juve losing at home to Fiorentina and currently missing out on 5th place. Sure they'll get 8 dodgy penalties.

[Deano's Mullet]

Fuck me its casemeiro last game not Bobby Charlton..hardly a legend is it

[Deano's Mullet]

Theyve only been decent the last  19 games in all the time hes been there.