One of the most successful parts of the Clearlake-Boehly ownership of Chelsea so far has been the link with Strasbourg.
They bought the historic French club for cheap, they’ve got them up at the top of the league fighting for European places, and they’ve already used them to good effect developing players. Andrey Santos and Djordje Petrovic are doing a great job this season and look ready for a Stamford Bridge return next year.
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Benoit Badiashile pictured back in Chelsea team training with various others.
Sky Sports discuss Chelsea's squad depth.
The UEFA Europa Conference League trophy.
But things could get more difficult this summer, with the Blues and their sister club potentially becoming a victim of their own success. Matt Law’s piece in the Daily Telegraph explains that quite drastic measures would need to be taken to ensure that our multi-club ownership setup doesn’t breach UEFA rules if we both make it into European competitions at the end of this season.
The same ownership structure can’t own multiple clubs playing in the same competition, so according to Law, Chelsea’s owners would have to “pause” their direct involvement in Strasbourg, putting it in a trust and suspending all transfers between the clubs for that period.
Nottingham Forest, Man City, Aston Villa and Man U have all had similar issues in the past or have potential problems next season. More broadly, having to do all this is apparently putting other teams off from expanding further in Europe, knowing that this is a possibility every year.
Strasbourg still some way off Champions League berth
Andrey Santos in Strasbourg training.
Andrey Santos in Strasbourg training.
For all their promise however, it’s not time to panic just yet. Strasbourg are 7th, 4 points behind Monaco in 4th place in Ligue 1. But there are still 9 games to go, and they’re competing with some really big teams with big budgets. It would be an amazing achievement if they overhaul that gap and qualify.
Plus of course there’s no guarantee that Chelsea make it either…