Chelsea can now spend big this summer as £76m off-pitch deal gets green light

Chelsea appear to have the capacity to spend big in the transfer market this summer after a controversial deal was given the green light.

It has been a bumpy ride so far for Chelsea under Todd Boehly, the American billionaire who took over the club almost exactly two years ago.

His time at Stamford Bridge has been characterised by a scattergun approach in the transfer market which has seen them spend over £1bn on new signings.

It’s fair to say that the 50-year-old is still waiting for a meaningful return on his gargantuan investment.

The West London side’s underperformance on the pitch and subsequent lack of prize money and UEFA income has left them scrambling for solutions to their Profit and Sustainability crisis.

Now, however, one of their more incendiary moves in this department appears to have been given the go-ahead

Chelsea get approval for £76m hotel deal

Chelsea have tried every trick in the book to get around PSR (formerly known as financial fair play, or FFP).

Their approach has led them to sign players to ultra-long contracts to spread the cost from an accounting perspective, as well as sell academy players for pure profit (i.e. no depreciation in terms of PSR).

But the most contentious was probably the sale of two on-site hotels at Stamford Bridge to another company owned by Todd Boehly.

That move banked them £76m in one swoop, sparking outrage among many commentators who believed it went against the spirit of the Premier League‘s spending rules.

There was a motion put forward by the Premier League at their AGM this week to outlaw these kind of deals but, as reported by The Athletic, it failed to pass

This was a major defeat for the Premier League but a major victory for Chelsea, setting a precedent that non-football asset sales are above board when it comes to PSR.

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Can Chelsea spend big this summer?

On face value, Chelsea appear to be way north of the Premier League’s PSR allowable loss threshold of £105m over a rolling three-year period.

However, the club have been briefing that they will have room to spend again this summer.

And while there are some reports to the contrary which suggest they need to sell players before the 30 June PSR assessment window cut-off, they will likely adopt a high-octane approach to recruitment again this summer.

The £76m hotel sale will boost their PSR quota, as will the sale of part of their training ground, again to a company within the Boehly network.

The net will eventually close on them if they continue to post eye-watering losses year on year, but it may well be another season before they are forced to take a more restrained approach.