The club could be hit with a 15-point deduction

It hasn’t been five minutes since Enzo Maresca jumped ship at Leicester City and they could be set for more bad news.

The Foxes were, at one point in the 2023/24 season, the runaway leaders of the Championship.

In the end, they were delighted and were even in danger of being overhauled in the face of promotion to the Premier League, although they managed to find some very late season form to get them over the line.

Maresca was the key to the whole process, but the first chance she had to move on, she took it.

Leicester and Chelsea among the teams to be fined for FFP breaches

Chelsea would not appear to be the healthiest hunting ground for managers looking to further their careers, but the Italian seems to be taking the challenge with his eyes wide open.

If he can not only get the team playing well, but also tame the interference of club owner Todd Boehly, Blues fans will surely welcome him quickly.

However, he could be blocked in the transfer market, with former Premier League co-creator Jon Smith noting that Chelsea could be punished for breaches of Financial Fair Play – something his old club are now accused of.

“It looks like Leicester could be hit with a 15-point deduction before the start of the season and things are certainly starting to look that way,” Smith told CaughtOffside for his exclusive column.

“What I am hearing now may not happen, however, the news is coming from very good sources.

“Forest have breached financial fair play again, while Chelsea may have done so, so we could also see both clubs face more charges.

“Villa are another team who have breached FFP regulations and are also facing punishment, while Man City’s 115 charges will be heard before Christmas.

“So I think it’s worth noting that of course you have to regulate the game, but let’s not forget that the supporters are the lifeblood of the game as well as the players.

“For both sides, it all depends on what happens on the pitch, and that shouldn’t be significantly determined by what happens off it.”

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It seems a case of out of the frying pan into the fire, with Maresca even putting himself in the firing line at the club.

It is not clear at this stage what kind of time frame surrounds all the clubs mentioned in terms of their punishment.

The last thing anyone would want is to start the campaign well behind their opponents or progress only to find that towards the end of the season they have been reinstated.