Inter Milan sweat over £71m owed on Lukaku fee as Chelsea crisis deepens
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Chelsea still owe Inter Milan £71m of the £95m fee agreed for the sale of Romelu Lukaku last summer.
With Roman Abramovich sanctioned the very existence of the club is in doubt with funds frozen and a monthly wage bill of £28m less than two weeks away.
Fans at today’s match against Newcastle were unable to visit to Club Megastore or even buy a programme as the club feels the payback on years of success funded by Vladimir Putin’s pal.
Expenditure has been trimmed to the bone with uncertainty over selling the club with sponsors such as Three and Hyundai suspending their link up for fear of a public backlash over assisting a toxic regime.
Football debts will be an immediate issue, Inter were forced into selling Lukaku to refinance other debts- if their Chelsea deal goes under or requires rescheduling there will be consequences for other debtors impacted.
The Daily Mail reports:
Chelsea could still owe Inter Milan up to £71million for their club-record signing of Romelu Lukaku, it has been revealed.
Lukaku headed back to Stamford Bridge for a fee worth £95million last summer, but The Sun are reporting that Chelsea planned to pay it in a series of instalments over 12 months.
While the Blues refused to comment on the details of the deal, Inter released documents in public when they were forced to refinance their huge debts last year.
Those documents show that the Italian club are not due to receive the full transfer fee until later this year, however it will not come directly from Chelsea.
On Wednesday Chelsea face Lille in the Champions League with as much focus on their travel, accommodation and expenditure as there is on defending their 2-0 first leg lead.