Chelsea are facing the possibility of a two-year, four-window transfer ban and some outlets, like the S*n, want to involve Arsenal in their nonsense.
You can imagine my intrigue when I spotted these headlines from the S*n:
From those snapshots, you might be thinking Arsenal reported Chelsea for fielding Bertrand Traore but they didn’t. All they did was list him on their website as part of the team that played for Chelsea’s u18s against Arsenal.
How dare they?!
FIFA are believed to be investigating five Premier League clubs for a breach of their rules when it comes to signing youngsters. Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and Barcelona have all had transfer bans for illegally recruiting youngsters and early gossip suggests that Chelsea could see the biggest punishment handed out yet.
But that has nothing to do with Arsenal who, at the time of writing, are alleged to have done nothing wrong.
Chelsea are also facing a £380k fine for 14 other minors they allegedly signed illegally.
With Manchester City also in a spot of bother over their actions in relation to sponsorship deals, it’s almost as if mega-rich owners who want to buy success for their clubs don’t really care about playing by the rules.
Arsene Wenger was always a fierce advocate of FFP but even he has called for an end to it, unfit for purpose as it is.
“Financial fair play raises new questions,” Wenger said. “I always did plead for it. Today, I am not convinced that we can maintain it. Football is maybe only at the start of a huge financial investment. It has become the most powerful sport in the world. It means do we have to open the door completely to investments? It is a question we have to raise because, at the moment, it looks like we have created rules that cannot be respected. There is nothing worse than when you create rules that are not respected.
“Maybe we are at the crossroads and we have to think, do we open it with complete freedom to investment for people like the Chinese and Americans, who want to invest here [in England]? If you want to remain the best league in the world, that is certainly the way we have to go.
“Do I want to get rid of financial fair play? I think so because there are too many legal ways to get around it. The question, at least, has to be raised. At the moment, it looks like you can buy clubs in China and get the players there, and buy them in other clubs, then get them, after, here. You can get around [FFP]. Am I convinced that, at the moment, the rules are strong enough to make it respected? I’m not sure.”