Roda JC using Chelsea money to pay squad instead of Chelsea loanee — report

Bizarre story out of the Netherlands this weekend, on multiple levels, where Chelsea loanee Ike Ugbo is currently plying his trade in the second division with Roda JC Kerkrade — and plying it quite successfully, it should be noted, with 4 goals in 7 appearances thus far.

But that’s where the feel-good story ends.

Roda’s results have been less than stellar (1 win in 8 tries) and there’s even greater chaos off the pitch, where the team lack even the funds to pay the players despite a new investor arriving at the club this summer. Unfortunately, said investor, Mauricio Garcia de la Vega, a banker from Mexico, has not actually invested a single penny in the club and on Friday, was forcibly removed from the stadium by the team’s own supporters!

With debts reportedly approaching a million Euros, Roda are on the brink of crisis. The situation has become so dire, that they’ve resorted to using the money Chelsea send each month for Ugbo to pay their own players instead. (It’s unclear why Chelsea send money to Roda to pay our own player instead of just paying him directly, but that’s what the report claims.)

The report by NRC, who’ve been digging into the financial affairs of Roda, reveals that Chelsea send €43k per month to help cover Ugbo’s €48k monthly wages (before taxes) — that translates to about €11k (£10k) pre-tax weekly salary, of which Chelsea evidently pay roughly 90 per cent as per the loan agreement — but because Ugbo earns about ten times as much as most players on the team, Roda have been using that cash to pay them instead. The thinking behind it is apparently that they’d “rather have one angry big earner than panic in the entire selection”.

It’s unclear how Ugbo is handling this whole thing, or if Chelsea have been alerted to this situation yet. Needless to say, this shouldn’t be happening.