Snak

UEFA have confirmed that Chelsea´s Champions League squad has hit the required financial barometers after extra restrictions were placed on the club earlier this year. Chelsea had been fined more than £27million for breaching regulations last season whilst in the Conference League.

Had Chelsea not complied with European football governing body´s new measures then their fine could have risen to more than £70million. In essence, Chelsea needed to ensure that the cost of players they added to their A List squad from the Conference League knockout stages was less than the cost of those removed.

Noni Madueke, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, and Nicolas Jackson all counted towards that figure but Joao Felix, Renato Veiga, and Djordje Petrovic, among others, did not. Chelsea chose to only name 23 players in their A List.

UEFA rules state that 25 A List players can be selected for the group stage. An unlimited number of B List players can be added later on and that will allow for Josh Acheampong, Tyrique George, and Romeo Lavia to play despite not being initially included here.

In a statement, UEFA said: “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.”

Chelsea´s first Champions League match is in just under two weeks, away to Bayern Munich, where they will come up against Jackson after his dramatic deadline day loan. Enzo Maresca will have access to all but one of his new signings for that clash.

Chelsea will also be working towards their squad cost ratio figure as they aim to avoid future issues.

A response to the UEFA sanction at the time read: "The club has worked closely and transparently with UEFA to provide a full and detailed breakdown of its financial reporting, which indicates that the financial performance of the Club is on a strong upwards trajectory.

"Chelsea FC greatly values its relationship with UEFA and considered it important to bring this matter to a swift conclusion by entering into a settlement agreement."

UEFA have confirmed that Chelsea´s Champions League squad has hit the required financial barometers

Chelsea signed Buonanotte on loan with the plan of adding him to our Champions League squad but things changed in the last days of the window. The thinking at the time was that [Tyrique] George might be sold, which would have brought in income and freed up space,” the Tweeter tweeted.

“When the deal was agreed, there was never any plan to recall Guiu into the first-team picture. But once Delap got injured, Chelsea had to bring Guiu back earlier than expected and register him in the squad.

“That, combined with George staying, meant the financial balance under UEFA’s rules became too tight. In short, the Delap injury, Guiu’s recall, and George not leaving all together meant we no longer had the headroom to also register Buonanotte without tipping over the limits.”

Chelsea’s attacking midfielder move backfires

So really it’s not a registration issue at all – it’s a financial one. As part of their settlement with UEFA this summer, Chelsea had to show a profit on the books from transfers this summer, with only players who featured in the Conference League counting towards it.

UEFA have now confirmed that they’ve managed that – but only just. Clearly Chelsea thought it was cutting it too fine to include Buonanotte too.

It’s a shame – the games against Pafos and Qarabag are the exact games he was signed to play, to give Cole Palmer a rest.

The highest rated Premier League players in each position after three rounds of games. (h/t @officialWhoScored)

Vicario - 7,31
Timber - 7,46
Chalobah - 7,72
Ballard - 7,93
Cucurella - 7,39
Caicedo - 7,61
Gonzalez - 7,34
Paqueta - 7,33
Kudus - 7,60
Pedro - 7,85
Grealish - 7,66