With UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations reshuffling the Premier League deck, it has left many of its club owners looking at whether they will be able to cash in on the hand they have been dealt. But for Roman Abramovich, the prize pot looks to diminish, as he looks to raise Chelsea’s stakes in a bid to outplay their rival clubs.

The Russian billionaire wants to move Chelsea away from Stamford Bridge in order to help them gain extra leverage against the new UEFA regulations. Finding a new home will not only help the club expand its fan base, but it will also accrue the club valuable extra revenue and thus, extra money to spend when the transfer market dawns.

Though the current capacity of Stamford Bridge is a fairly healthy 42,000, the home they have loved for the past 106 years is fairly small by European standards. The Bridge is actually ranked the 60th for largest stadium in the Europe.

A Move away from Stamford Bridge…

So a move for a club like Chelsea with an owner like Abramovich is easy then, right? Wrong. As well as the usually headaches that go hand in hand with moving home, Chelsea board do not actually own free hold of the stadium. That was bought by the fans in the late ‘90s, as thousands of Chelsea supporters clubbed together to form Chelsea Pitch Owners Ltd and protect the club against property developers. It would mean that Abramovich would have to make an offer to each member of the owners club for them to move to another location.

And the problems don’t stop there. The feasibility for Chelsea finding another home will prove difficult. London is already a cramped space and cost may well outweigh the plus sides of the venture. The Russian billionaire has already spent £1m trying to find a solution to remedy this posing problem.

So why not revamp Stanford Bridge? The answer is simple. Even if they persuaded Chelsea Pitch Owners Ltd that it was the right move, the location where they would play their games would need to be decided upon. Even with Twickenham down the road, the schedule of the stadium is already crammed and the likelihood of Chelsea’s fixture list fitting within that is implausible. Craven Cottage could also offer its services as a potential temporary home. But regardless of the issues that would arise in any ground share, Craven Cottage is too small for Chelsea and their fans.

A solution to alleviate the pressures that have been exerted on the Premier League’s top dogs is critical. Ensuring that they can cope with the financial demands of the world’s elite players and maintain their levels of performance, hinges on their generated income. Failure to find a solution means they will lose their transfer market edge, and with it, the prosperity of European football success.