Updated: 25 May 2026 11:55 BST |
4 min read
As end-of-season fixtures go, Sunderland defeating Chelsea to the untrained eye was pretty much as standard; one side motivated to win and the other looking like they’d rather be anywhere else.
But here the incentives for both were clear; Sunderland, win and a European ticket could be secured at the end of a superb season. For Chelsea, lose and you get the opportunity to avoid Europe altogether.
Let’s be clear, Chelsea need the revenue. As numerous commentators have highlighted, their losses are record-breaking, their transfer spending unfeasibly large, and BlueCo’s entire business model is under intense scrutiny.
But for the Premier League teams, the Uefa Conference League is simply not a viable option. Based on the last few seasons the potential revenue stream is around €20m, and that’s before the associated cost of sending your squad to the other side of Eastern Europe on a Thursday night. In short, the potential return is around 12-15% of what the Champions League can deliver. It’s just not worth it for Chelsea.
Furthermore, Chelsea are already in trouble with Uefa for breaking their restrictive Financial Fair Play rules. Those rules are set to get tighter in terms of the % of wages which can be spent from the revenue generated. The Blues have already been fined £26.7m, while a further £60m is pending should they compete in Europe and breach the rules again.
How best to avoid this punishment while they get their house in order? Not competing in Europe at all. If I’m thinking about this, you can rest assured that Chelsea have been, and that Xabi Alonso has thoughts on this too. It makes his life as the arriving coach infinitely easier if he has a full week between matches to prepare his team. Michael Carrick and Manchester United have found this to their immense advantage since January.
I’m not suggesting that those Chelsea players went out and threw the match – I don’t think they did. The onus was still on Sunderland to go and win the match, and they did that in a professional manner. Still. Malo Gusto’s own goal, Wesley Fofana’s inexplicable second yellow card, leading to a red, and a farcical five minute period where they did everything possible to persuade VAR to present Sunderland with a penalty via wrestling at successive corners. Even when Cole Palmer pulled a goal back (a howler from the Sunderland keeper Robin Roefs) Chelsea barely went near the goal. The second half was very, very, very scrappy, so much so that the game went on until the 103rd minute.
It was a result that suited everyone concerned and there’s nothing wrong with that. The concept of tanking is commonplace in NBA and NFL, where the weakest teams get granted with the best draft picks for the following season. Teams compete until it is no longer in their interest to do so. It wasn’t in Chelsea’s interest to compete in the Uefa Conference League and that’s fine.
What’s perhaps more of an issue is that, as financial restrictions aim to keep clubs in check, edge cases like this develop particularly for Premier League clubs where the gulf in revenue is obvious. PL teams in general have no business being in the Conference League. It’s not for them. It’s for tiny clubs who wouldn’t get a run in Europe otherwise.
So at the Stadium of Light baked in sunshine, everyone got what they wanted. Sunderland got European football that their exploits since promotion probably deserved. Chelsea’s players don’t need to reconvene a few weeks after a World Cup to compete in a tournament they’ve already recently won. Xabi Alonso can focus entirely on domestic football.
There’s no crime here, no punishment, it’s simply a fact. Chelsea, whether they chose to or not, gave themselves the best possible chance next season by not winning this game.
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