Chelsea to decide maximum of three players to register in Champions League
At least four Chelsea players who were signed in January will be unable to qualify for the Champions League and will therefore be ordered to miss out this season’s knockout rounds.
Each club participating in the knockout stages may register a maximum of three players for the remaining fixtures in accordance with Article 46 of UEFA’s regulations on mid-season player registrations to its tournaments.
The players must register by February 2 regardless of whether they have previously competed for another squad in any European event.
For the majority of the other teams, it is straightforward enough, but not for Chelsea, who added eight new players in January, including club-record signing Enzo Fernandez.
Graham Potter must choose who to sign from the remaining seven signings after excluding Malo Gusto, who will spend the remainder of the season on loan at Lyon.
Furthermore, they could need to drop some players of their present team in order to utilise the maximum three new registrations.
According to UEFA’s official website, the Blues presently have three players on List B and 24 players on List A, which still includes Jorginho, who joined Arsenal.
Since any club may have an unlimited number of players in the List B category as long as they are under 21 and have trained with the club for at least two years, managing the List B squad is not particularly difficult.
The three players on UEFA’s List B in the current Chelsea team are Armando Broja, Lewis Hall, and Charlie Webster.
List A, on the other hand, is the tricky part for Chelsea.
The Blues are fortunate in that their academy has developed enough locally trained players enable them to name a 25-man squad for the Champions League (UEFA requires a minimum of eight from each team).
But even after leaving out Jorginho, the Blues will still need to cut a player from their current lineup in order to make room for three of their new January additions.
Hakim Ziyech would have been the obvious choice, but while still feasible, his intended loan move to Paris Saint-Germain is dependent on the outcome of the French FA (LFP) meeting, which is rumored to have taken place on Tuesday morning.
Now for the crucial query. Who of the January signings will be included on Chelsea’s Champions League list? It is clear that none of the January arrivals qualify for List B.
This also applies to Joao Felix, although Benoit Badiashile has arguably shown that he deserves a spot in the squad too.
Bear in mind, having already been knocked out of the domestic cups, not being in the Champions League squad will significantly limit the game time for any player at Chelsea.
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