It was a week after the Premier League season drew to a conclusion but one of the flashpoints of the campaign was provided by Manchester United’s shock win over derby rivals, Manchester City.
The Red Devils pulled off an unexpected 2-1 victory in the FA Cup final to cause a significant shift in the final standings at the top end of the league table.
It means that Chelsea will only be playing in the UEFA Conference League next season, as opposed to the Europa League after they finished sixth in the league standings.
The Blues looked set to compete in the competition they won in both 2013 and 2019 after a good run of form at the end of the season pushed them up the table. Only an FA Cup win for eight-placed Man Utd could change their plans and that is now a reality.
Meanwhile, it is Newcastle who drop out of European competition completely and they fail to secure consecutive seasons with continental football.
Chelsea will now be seeded in the Play-off stage of the Conference League before they can reach what used to be the group stage but is now a league format.
On one hand, Chelsea will be disappointed to be destined for the third-tier competition which adds extra matches and longer travels to their itinerary. Regardless, Chelsea tickets will remain in high demand next season.
However, it is unchartered territory for the Blues and a chance to win a new competition which has only existed for three seasons, there is a chance to become the first club to win all three of Europe’s competitions while experiencing some new and interesting locations.
Time to take a stand
Given the workload and travelling involved, Chelsea can rotate easily and blood a number of their talented youngsters to lay a claim for regular inclusion in the first team.
To do that, they must accept the invitation to the tournament despite fear of scrutiny from UEFA’s financial fair play rules. Also, prize money of around £15m for winning the competition last season may discourage Chelsea from participating as too much of a financial risk.
The European football governing body’s strict financial sustainability regulations only allow clubs to have losses of up to €80m (£68.5m) for the 2024/25 monitoring period, which looks at a two-year gap between 2022 and 2024.
That means Chelsea would only be able to lose £68.5million over the previous two years to stay within UEFA’s regulations, instead of the £105million over three years in England.
Although the club avoided a potential punishment by selling two hotels at Stamford Bridge to a sister company, real estate profits are excluded from UEFA’s calculations.
Juventus faced a similar issue after qualifying for the Conference League last season and they were ultimately forced to give up their place after defaulting on FFP rules. Chelsea now has a short period to raise funds and offset losses by selling some of their homegrown talents such as Conor Gallagher, Trevoh Chalobah, Armando Broja, Ian Maatsen and Lewis Hall.
Furthermore, the Conference League’s prize money is low and commercial prospects are not thought to be great in a third-tier competition. This means the financial perks of participating in the competition might not be enough to overcome the difficulty of complying with the stricter rules.
Nevertheless, Chelsea is expected to go ahead with plans to participate in Europe next season considering the club’s statement following Man United’s FA Cup win.
“Chelsea will play in the 2024/25 UEFA Conference League after England’s European qualification spots were finalised following Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup final.
It will be the first time we have competed in the competition that was initially contested in the 2021/22 season.
Qualification for the Conference League marks our return to European football after a one-year absence and means next season will be our 32nd European campaign in club history.”
There are still key decisions to be made by the club following Mauricio Pochettino’s exit by mutual consent at the end of his one season in charge.
Chelsea are locked in talks with different managerial candidates and the frontrunner appears to be Leicester City manager Enzo Maresca who led the Foxes back to the Premier League by winning the EFL Championship at the first time of asking.
The 44-year-old is thought to be winning the race for the job ahead of former Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi and Brentford’s Thomas Frank. Meanwhile, Leicester would be seeking £8m-£10m in compensation for a man who served as an assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
Blue conundrum?
Whoever the next Chelsea manager is will face a major challenge as he will be tasked with a mammoth fixture schedule in his first campaign in charge.
Should they go far in cup competitions, Chelsea is set to rack up as many as 74 matches next term as the play-off round to reach the Conference League group stage takes place on August 22 and August 29.
Progress to the knockout round may also throw up a knockout play-off to reach the Round of 16, which means the Stamford Bridge side may have to play 17 games to reach the Conference League final in Poland.
If Chelsea also go all the way in the domestic cups then it will take six games each to reach both the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup finals. Yet, a further seven games could await in the Club World Cup which will feature 32 teams and run from June 15 to July 13 next year.
In essence, Chelsea might end up playing competitive football from the start of the Premier League season until the end of the Club World Cup, a run which spans 330 days.
They will require a large squad to go deep into these competitions and a few players can benefit from Chelsea dropping down to European football’s third-tier competition. They include Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana – two players who spent the entirety of last season virtually injured – and other youngsters like Cesare Casadei, Andrey Santos, Deivid Washington, Josh Acheampong and Tyrique George.
All in all, this is an opportunity for Chelsea to win one or two cups next season and their young team, as well as the manager, must take the involvement in the Conference League as a chance to make a statement of their winning intentions.