UEFA TO CHANGE RULES IN RESPONSE TO CHELSEA’S DEAL  

UEFA is to change its Financial Fair Play rules in response to Chelsea’s recent trend of signing players on long-term contracts. Signing players on extended contracts enables Chelsea to spread the player’s transfer fee over the life of that deal when submitting their annual accounts. That means the 89 million pounds signing of Mykhailo Mudryk will be valued at eleven million pounds a year over his eight-and-a-half-year deal.

UEFA is to set a five-year limit over which a transfer fee can be spread. Clubs will still be able to offer longer deals under UK regulations but will not be able to stretch transfer fees beyond the first five years. The change to Financial Fair Play rules will come into force during the summer and will not apply retrospectively.