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Hello! It’s back to the world of football finance today. Chelsea are potentially in hot water. We’re here to explain.

On the way:

Chelsea’s 74 charges: What are they? How could club be punished?

Eden Hazard and Roman Abramovich (Getty Images)

I don’t know about you, but one of my hopes for this season was that we’d have the pleasure of yet another regulatory dust-up between a Premier League club and the powers that be. A month in, and here it is: 70-plus disciplinary charges levied against Chelsea by England’s Football Association.

We’ll add them to the Premier League charges that have hung over Manchester City for God knows how long (a can forever getting kicked down the road) and, while the nature of the alleged offences aren’t identical, they’re similar in the sense of potential consequences being hard to predict. Both go back a long time and, in Chelsea’s case, they appear to relate to past ownership.

Before we broach the implications, let’s run through the claims made against the Stamford Bridge club:

• Chelsea are accused of 74 breaches of FA rules on player agents between 2009 to 2022. The charges focus mainly on seasons 2010-11 to 2015-16.
• The Athletic understands each allegation relates to the time when Chelsea were controlled by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, although the FA would not confirm this point. The club were sold to a consortium made up of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in 2022.
• The transfers being looked at include Eden Hazard’s £32m ($43m) move from Lille in 2012, and the arrival of Willian and Samuel Eto’o from Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia the following year. Hazard was one of Chelsea’s most influential stars. None of the players concerned are accused of wrongdoing.

FA regulations governing intermediaries and third-party investors in players — including how those costs are recorded and registered — are pretty strict. The expenses contribute to profit and sustainability (PSR) calculations, and failing to disclose them properly could be regarded as an unfair sporting advantage.

The question, as with City and the 115, is where this is heading — and what penalty, if any, Chelsea are likely to face.

Punishment options

One crucial thing to point out: Chelsea reported themselves to the FA, the Premier League, and European governing body UEFA. Discrepancies were spotted during due diligence carried out prior to the Boehly-Clearlake takeover, and the consortium covered its back against future liabilities by shaving £100m off the purchase price of £2.5bn.

Data was passed to the authorities and dialogue has continued ever since. Simon Johnson’s explainer says Chelsea see this more as a tax issue, and the club believe any sanction from the FA will be financial, helped by their own transparency. But the commission that hears the case has the power to impose stricter punishment, including a Premier League points deduction.

The FA has given Chelsea until September 19 — next Friday — to respond. In the meantime, the Premier League (already in the thick of its ruck with City) is investigating the matter separately, and could bring charges of its own. It’s thrill-a-minute stuff for the sports lawyers, but not so much anybody else.

News round-up

• Andre Onana completed his loan move to Trabzonspor in Turkey last night. I don’t imagine we’ll see him play in goal for Manchester United again.
• Manchester United Women, meanwhile, lost their boots in transit on the way to a Champions League qualifying tie against Brann in Norway. They found some spares but were beaten 1-0.
• Having initially blocked the move for paperwork reasons, FIFA has relented and allowed former Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte to join Athletic Club from Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr.
• UEFA’s executive committee met yesterday to discuss the proposal to stage La Liga and Serie A games abroad. They failed to reach a decision on whether to give their approval.
• We’ve heard from Ange Postecoglou for the first time since his appointment as Nottingham Forest’s head coach. He says the conditions for winning a trophy there are “perfect”. No pressure, then.

Sensible spending? What La Liga clubs really think of the salary cap

Marcus Rashford after signing for Barcelona (Photo: JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)

The charges against Chelsea arguably prove otherwise, but sometimes it seems as if financial controls imposed on clubs the world over are unduly lax. Premier League sides spent a mere £3.11bn in the last transfer window, keeping it tight as usual.

Where restrictions are definitely paying off, however, is Spain. Our feature today on La Liga’s salary cap — the worry that keeps Barcelona awake at night — is packed with extraordinary statistics, many of which suggest the competition is better off for it.

On the eve of the new season, for example, more than 100 signings in Spain’s top two leagues were waiting to be registered as salary-cap limits were checked. Go back 10 years or so and Spanish clubs were collectively in debt to the tune of around £2bn. A ridiculous number went through bankruptcy proceedings. Drastic action was called for, and drastic action has worked.

The rules aren’t perfect (for example, they force teams to sell more homegrown talent then they would like, as a means of balancing the books) but to judge from the voices in this morning’s piece, they’re respected and credited with restoring Spain’s equilibrium. “There’s no doubt we are better off today,” said a source at Elche, and it wouldn’t be the worst thing if salary caps caught on elsewhere.

Power shift: Both Manchester clubs look undercooked as derby looms

(James Gill, Ben Roberts, Danehouse/Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)

Is something rotten in the state of Manchester? Oli Kay suspects so. United’s depression we know about — it’s impervious to anything they try — but under-performance has been gradually infecting City too.

The season’s first derby takes place at the Etihad on Sunday and it’s unusually tricky to call since neither club is travelling smoothly. United scraped a first win in their last game before the international break and looked rather undercooked. City shed six points in their first three matches and looked closer to raw.

Both sides are examples of how power shifts in the Premier League. United ran the show for much of the 1990s and early 2000s. City, with Guardiola pulling their strings, reached record-breaking levels of dominance with four back-to-back titles. Sunday will be typically box office, but not for the reasons either club would like. Because, while they yearn for magic lost, the real action is going on around them.

Around TAFC

• Felipe Cardenas went to interview Tata Martino, Inter Miami’s coach until the end of last season. He had plenty to say on Miami, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Boca Juniors job offers.
• It would be natural to scoff at Thomas Tuchel asking England to embrace the long throw, but Mark Carey makes a good point here: when time for open-play coaching in international football is so scarce, why not harness set pieces?
• Back to Premier League action this weekend, which means back to Premier League predictions for the aforementioned Oli Kay. You can see how he and his rivals are getting on, above. Young Wilfred is hanging in gamely.
• As Barca prepare for their first home game of the term in La Liga on Sunday, the venue for it is properly funny. Our latest podcast has gone further in explaining what on earth they’re doing there, and if Camp Nou will ever be ready.
• Quiz question: which 12 London clubs have played in England’s top flight since it was formed in 1888? Answers here later today, and in Monday’s TAFC.
• Most clicked in Thursday’s TAFC: the World Cup ticket site meltdown.

Catch a match

(Selected matches, times ET/UK)

Friday: Bundesliga — Bayer Leverkusen vs Eintracht Frankfurt, 2.30pm/7.30pm – ESPN, Fubo/BBC, Bundesliga YouTube.

Saturday: Premier League — Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest, 7.30am/12.30pm — USA Network, Fubo/TNT Sports; West Ham United vs Tottenham Hotspur, 12.30pm/5.30pm — NBC, Fubo, Peacock Premium/Sky Sports; Brentford vs Chelsea, 3pm/8pm — USA Network, Fubo/Sky Sports. La Liga: Real Sociedad vs Real Madrid, 10.15am/3.15pm — ESPN, Fubo (U.S. only); Bundesliga: Bayern Munich vs Hamburg, 12.30pm/5.30pm — ESPN+/Sky Sports; Serie A: Juventus vs Inter, 12pm/5pm — Paramount+, DAZN/TNT Sports, DAZN; MLS: Charlotte vs Inter Miami, 7.30pm/12.30am — MLS Season Pass/Apple TV.

Sunday: Premier League — Burnley vs Liverpool, 9am/2pm — USA Network, Fubo/Sky Sports; Manchester City vs Manchester United, 11.30am/4.30pm — Peacock Premium/Sky Sports; La Liga: Barcelona vs Valencia, 3pm/8pm – ESPN, Fubo/Premier Sports; Serie A: Milan vs Bologna, 2.45pm/7.45pm — Paramount+, DAZN/TNT Sports, DAZN.

And finally…

Admission to Premier League stadiums is a massive bone of contention. More and more, long-standing supporters — or ‘legacy fans’, to use an awful phrase — resent the fact global appeal and oversubscription conspire to shut them out.

So when it emerged that a secondary school in Dundee, Scotland, had randomly acquired 45 seats for Newcastle United’s home Champions League game against Barcelona on September 18 (the hottest ticket in town), it all kicked off. The official online queue ran to 110,000 people. The natives were livid.

Newcastle frantically intervened, saying the tickets had been purchased on an unauthorised resale site, and cancelled them. Sympathy with the pupils caught in the middle (all of whom were paying £295 for the privilege) but my wife is from Newcastle and, trust me, it’s best to keep the peace.

(Top photo: Visionhaus/Getty Images)