03 February 2023 , 22:30
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Jurgen Klopp has insisted he’s simply not qualified to judge whether Chelsea have destroyed Financial Fair Play regulations once and for all.
The London club appeared to drive a coach and horses through Fifa’s rules which are designed to stop super-rich owners of clubs simply spending their way to success, with some creating accounting.
Klopp accepts Chelsea may simply have found a way around the regulations, despite a staggering £325m spend in the January window, which was MORE than the other big five European leagues put together.
And he admitted that he isn’t financial savvy enough to question the club’s new owners. Asked if the FFP regulations are no longer fit for purpose, he replied with a huge grin: “I can’t answer that without a lawyer because I can’t understand the question!”
But he did go on to suggest that Chelsea may well have just found a way to work within the guidelines to spend almost as much in January as all the other Premier League clubs combined.
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And if so, then he offered them a pointed congratulations. “How can I sit there and say ‘ooops, that is interesting’, counting the pounds and thinking ‘wow’? Of course I am a normal person, how can I do that? I cannot judge that.
Jurgen Klopp doesn't understand FFP (Liverpool FC)“I can say nothing about it because I don’t know how the rules exactly are to be 100 percent honest, and how you can go left and right. I don’t know.
“But, probably they didn’t (break the rules)…maybe they found a way how it is completely legal, and then congratulations. Maybe other teams would have found it as well, but then you need the money on top of it, and they had both. So congratulations and now they have a great squad, and now they have to use it.”
Chelsea appear to have used usually long contract lengths - with several of their January signings getting nine and 10 year deals - to spread the cost of their spend, and reduce the FFP pressure.
Chelsea signed Enzo Fernandez for a British record fee (Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)That has prompted FIFA to change the rules from next season, when contract costs can be spread over a maximum of five years only, no matter the length of the agreement.
And Klopp said that it is up to interested parties, including the media, to examine the situation closely. “How can you ask a football manager about that? If my expertise would be financial issues all over the world I would be the person to answer.
“But I really think that is much more your job. If you are not happy with it then figure it out, take your time and ask the right people and put the answers together, and make something of it.”