Chelsea have announced their Champions League squad for the group phase. It comes after a summer of attempting to comply with UEFA squad balancing restrictions.
Additional enforced rules were placed on Chelsea (and Aston Villa) after a failure to meet financial regulations last season. Chelsea were not only fined £27million (which could rise to over £60million) but had other constraints applied as well.
The club had to ensure that they came out positive on changes made to their A-List from the squad submitted for the knockout stages of the Conference League. It is a complex situation but in simple terms, means transfers such as Noni Madueke and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall counted towards their balance, but Armando Broja and Renato Veiga did not as they were not part of the squad.
Chelsea have had to be careful over how much they spend, not because they would breach UEFA’s rules, but because they could leave themselves unable to register certain new signings. After spending heavily on Alejandro Garnacho, Estevao Willian, Liam Delap, Jorrel Hato, Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens, and Dario Essugo, there was plenty to add and nobody wants to miss out.
Squads had to be sent to UEFA along with shirt numbers, birthdays, nationalities, and also club doctors. The deadline was on Tuesday night, just one day after the transfer window closed.
UEFA squad rules state that “No club can have more than 25 players on List A during the season, of whom at least two must be goalkeepers.” Other points are: “As a minimum, eight of those 25 places are reserved exclusively for ‘locally trained players’ and no club may have more than four ‘association-trained players’ listed among those eight places.
“If a club has fewer than eight locally trained players in their squad, then the maximum number of players on List A is reduced accordingly.” A locally trained player must have been “on a club’s books for three entire seasons (i.e. the period between the first and last official match of the relevant national championship) or of 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21.”
Association-trained players are those who were “on another club’s books in the same association for three entire seasons (i.e. the period between the first and last official match of the relevant national championship) or of 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21.”
Chelsea have been drawn against Bayern Munich, Qarabag, Atalanta, and Napoli away from home in the upcoming eight-match, 32-team league phase. They will play Benfica, Ajax, Barcelona, and Pafos at Stamford Bridge.
Their first fixture is an ironic meeting with Vincent Kompany’s Bayern on September 17 in Germany. It will pit Enzo Maresca back against Nicolas Jackson, who is eligible to feature after completing a loan move on transfer deadline day.
Confirmed Chelsea UEFA Champions League squad:
Goalkeepers: Sanchez, Jorgensen
Defenders: Cucurella, Tosin, Badiashile, Colwill, Hato, Chalobah, James, Gusto, Fofana
Midfielders: Fernandez, Palmer, Gittens, Essugo, Santos, Caicedo
Forwards: Neto, Delap, Joao Pedro, Guiu, Estevao, Garnacho
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