Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has blasted rival mega-money clubs for breaching Financial Fair Play regulations by overspending on big-name players, saying they have an unfair advantage and do not view the rules as much of a deterrent.
The Blues chief believes he has completed his deals this year in order to fall in line with FFP regulations and has shamed rival title-contenders for not doing the same.
He is of the view that fines are not deterrent for the likes of Manchester City – who had to pay £50m this summer for breaching the rules as a result of their limitless budget for player purchases.
Although the fine was enforced, Manuel Pellegrini’s Manchester giants did not suffer the penalty of disqualification from Europe, which they should have done according to FFP regulations.
Mourinho explained how Chelsea has bought and sold wisely, doing profitable business this year with the likes of the departed Romelu Lukaku (£28m), David Luiz (£35m) and Juan Mata (£37m) totalling sales of £115m, and arrivals Cesc Fabregas (£26m), Filipe Luis (£16m) and Diego Costa (£32m) totalling purchases of £74m.
“In the winter we sold Mata; in the summer we sold David Luiz and Lukaku,” the Portuguese coach told Yahoo.
“So Chelsea in this moment is not a spender. Chelsea in this moment is making more money in transfers than the money we spend.”
He explained how the whole idea behind the FFP regulations – which first came into force for the 2011/2012 season – was to give clubs that did not have vast amounts of cash a fair crack of the whip in terms of which players they could acquire.
Mourinho said the rules do not count for much with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City continuing to spend big and the original punishment of disqualification from Europe not having stood in a recent case (Manchester City).
“When UEFA decided for Financial Fair Play they were trying to do this to make every team have equal possibilities,” he said.
“But the reality is that the big teams, the big clubs, the clubs with more years at the top with more fan base around the world, with more income, are the players that keep being the big spenders.
“So Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, Manchester, all these huge teams, I think they have an advantage.
“But at Chelsea we are so happy with the way we are doing things, with this great balance between the income and the money we can spend,” he added.