Behind the scenes of the transfer world, clubs are busy trying to save their own skins. This year it became clear once again that Premier League clubs in particular do not always serve up the best coffee. Football zone investigated why June 30 is circled in red in England.

By Lars Capiau

July. The transfer window is officially open again. A few things are certain. Clubs like Juventus are hunting for free transfer deals, Turkish clubs are lurking for cheap but expired top players and Bayern Munich is sniffing around in their own league.

Other teams are competing for the hottest talents of the moment, and are not averse to emptying their wallets to attract the diamonds in the rough. The transfer window. A time when supporters of clubs almost press the F5 button through the keyboard.

Every window has memorable deals. A very expensive mistake or an incredible bargain. But behind the scenes, there are sometimes shady games going on. The curtains of the transfer world have been carefully opened in previous years. Especially in West London.

Chelsea threw hundreds of millions at players to tie them to the club. Enzo Fernández. 121 million. Moises Caicedo. 116 million. Mykhaylo Mudryk. 100 million. Wesley Fofana. 80 million. Marc Cucurella. 65 million. Roméo Lavia. 62 million. Christopher Nkunku. 60 million.

All those mega amounts: how was that possible with all the strict regulations? Financial Fair Play-regulations? As an experienced skipper, Tedd Boehly navigated all obstacles with a clever accounting trick. By spreading contracts over an extremely large number of years, the depreciation costs per year could be significantly reduced.

UEFA has since banned that transfer strategy. The cost of a transfer fee can no longer be spread over more than five years. To illustrate: Mudryk signed a contract with Chelsea for 8.5 (!) years.

The competition organizer Premier League also has strict financial rules: the so-called Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR). According to this rule, clubs may make a maximum loss of 122 million euros over a period of three years.

That amount is simply a conclusion from the rules that UEFA also prescribes in the FFP. Incidentally, long-term investments do not count in determining that amount. Those long-term investments include financial injections in youth academies, women's football and club facilities.

Should a club break that one golden 122 million rule, the most severe penalty possible will follow: a points deduction. Ask Everton. The Toffees were punished twice. First the club had to surrender ten points, which was later reduced to six points on appeal, and later in the season the club lost another two points.

Everton had breached PSR rules over the three-year period from the 2019/20 to 2021/22 season. The Merseyside club suffered losses of around £23m more than allowed. The margin was considered 'significant' and the competition organisers therefore took strict action.

Everton were also found guilty of breaching PSR regulations in the period from 2020/21 to 2022/23, then with more than nineteen million euros more than allowed. Because the club had already been punished, had suffered reputational damage and had suffered a loss of turnover due to the first points deduction, 'only' two points were now deducted.

Nottingham Forest were not spared either. The Tricky Trees was deducted four points last season for breaking PSR rules. As a result, the club briefly fell into the relegation zone, but the team eventually played itself safe.

Manchester City can prepare themselves. An independent commission has been investigating for some time the Citizenswho allegedly violated the rules 115 times. Seven of those violations refer to violations of PSR regulations.

Hefty points deductions for Pep Guardiola's team are a very realistic scenario, should the club be found guilty. Leicester City also sees a points deduction as a dark cloud hanging over their heads. According to the Premier League, they have also breached the PSR rules.

Wakeful to the shock of Everton and Forest losing points, some Premier League clubs have come up with a new accounting trick this season. The date of June 30 has been circled in red on the teams' diaries.

If the clubs had suffered a three-year loss greater than €122 million before that date, they would have been at risk of losing points in the 2024/25 season. Clubs are now hyper-aware of the sporting implications of financial troubles following last season’s points losses.

Six Premier League clubs were therefore involved in fifteen transfers in the last ten days of June this season, worth a total of 375 million euros, according to The Athletic out. For comparison: a season earlier, in the same period, 'only' 180 million euros were spent. A year further back, it was even less: 68 million euros.

Everton, Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Leicester City are the six clubs in question that made the fifteen transfers possible. The striking thing: in an awful lot of those transfers, one of the six clubs bought a player from one of the other clubs on that list.

Take for example Ian Maatsen, who swapped Chelsea for Aston Villa for almost 44.5 million euros. The same Villa, who in turn sold Omari Kellyman, who had 35 (!) minutes of Premier League football under his belt, to Chelsea for 22.5 million euros.

Leicester City felt compelled by PSR rules to sell key midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. He left the club for £35m. Where to, you ask? Chelsea.

Tim Iroegbunam (with less than 250 Premier League minutes) then moved from Villa to Everton for just under £11m, while Everton sent Lewis Dobbin to Birmingham for a cool £12m to go the other way.

Villa were also happily trading with the financially battered Juventus in the last days of June. The English team guided Douglas Luiz to Turin for around 52 million euros, while in return they took Samuel Iling-Junior and Enzo Barrenetchea for 22 million euros from the old woman.

Newcastle United played the same strange game. The Magpies 'helped' Chelsea by poaching Lewis Hall from London for 33 million, but also sold heavily. In doing so, they appeared to be in cahoots with another team struggling with PSR rules: Nottingham Forest.

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising transfer was that of Elliot Anderson, who has yet to score a goal in the Premier League but left Newcastle for Nottingham for a whopping £35m. Odysseos Vlachodimos went the other way and joined Newcastle for a reported £12m.

Because Newcastle also sold Yankuba Minteh to Brighton & Hove Albion (35 million euros) in a hurry, the club run by Saudi entrepreneurs suddenly recorded a neat net transfer result of 42 million euros. All transfers announced before July 1.

The back-and-forth trading of (youth) players for, to say the least, astonishing amounts of money seems to have a rather shady underlying reason. The six clubs seem to be helping each other on the transfer market to write green figures by spending a remarkable amount of money on each other's players before July 1. The financial snake pit that the Premier League has become needs to be highlighted once again. loophole to be closed. Again.

More sports news