Chelsea at risk of being blocked from registering new signings for the Champions League

Chelsea may have pocketed nearly £60m from reaching the semi-finals of the Club World Cup, but that windfall does little to ease their ongoing issues with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.

The Blues were hit with a €31m (£26.2m) fine for breaching financial rules — an issue that directly affects their ability to register new signings such as Estevao, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Liam Delap. As it stands, Chelsea will only be able to register players for the 2025-26 Champions League if their FFP balance sheet submitted on 3 September is in the green.

UEFA List A headache

The heart of the issue lies in List A — the official squad list submitted to UEFA for the Conference League in February 2025. At that time, Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana were omitted due to long-term injuries.

Now, along with the five summer arrivals, Enzo Maresca also needs to factor Lavia and Fofana into his plans. Dario Essugo, Mamadou Sarr and Mike Penders are three more names who could further complicate matters.

UEFA takes both the transfer fee and player salary into account when calculating FFP impact. Chelsea currently have ten players awaiting registration for European competition, significantly inflating the club’s spending for the upcoming campaign.

For example, Liam Delap’s £30m transfer is amortised over the five-year contract maximum, adding £6m to the books for 2025-26. Joao Pedro’s deal reportedly exceeds £50m, while Bynoe-Gittens arrived for around £48.5m.

Sales are key to balancing the books

Chelsea hope that outgoing transfers will help balance their accounts. Joao Felix, Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, Renato Veiga and Axel Disasi are not currently on List A, but they can be added before the window closes if a sale is arranged — providing a boost to UEFA compliance.

Further departures could include Christopher Nkunku, Trevoh Chalobah and Noni Madueke, all of whom are reportedly available for transfer.

Despite the looming pressure, the club is said to be “not particularly worried” about the situation. According to The Times, Chelsea executives remain open to further signings this summer.

One potential target is Mohammed Kudus of West Ham United, should Madueke be sold. But as the report stresses, “any new signings are entirely dependent on sales being completed first.”

This article was originally published on Trivela .