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Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck has revealed that Uefa’s proposed financial regulations are already having a significant impact on how the club does business.

The ‘financial fair play’ rules will force clubs to balance their books by stopping them from spending more than they make from revenues. European football’s governing body wants to stop billionaire owners such as Roman Abramovich bankrolling clubs.

The new rules will be in place from the 2012/13 season and clubs could be thrown out of European competition if they do not abide by the regulations.

Buck said: "We have looked very closely at the proposed rules and starting now we are going to have to be very careful on transfer fees and in salary renegotiation because having a positive profit and loss statement will be crucial in getting a Uefa licence and participating in the Champions League.

"Even if we wanted to spend more money, we just won't be able to so we have to do what is necessary to comply with the new rules.

"In round terms, your football income is going to have to equal your football expenses.”

However, Buck thinks that the rules concerning owner-investment are not clear enough at present.

"I think personally it is very significantly different if a club gets money from its owner than a club going out and borrowing money from a bank, and I think the rules ought to take account of that. It is unclear at the moment whether they will,” he continued.

"One of the problems that we see with the current formulation is that it is going to maintain the status quo. In other words, if owners cannot put money into their clubs then it is going to be very difficult for the club that is, say, at the bottom of the Premier League to work its way up to the top, or a club from the Championship to move into a respectable position in the Premier League. We don't think maintaining the status quo is right."

Meanwhile, Buck has reiterated that there are no plans to move away from Stamford Bridge or increase its capacity which currently stands at about 42,000. The club is instead looking to sell the naming rights to the stadium.

"In this current economic environment, it makes no sense for us to look at the possibility of a new stadium, spending that type of money," added Buck.

"In terms of Stamford Bridge, it is possible we could find a way of increasing capacity by several thousand seats but it would be very expensive.

"You would only really do it to improve the atmosphere as opposed to improve the financial situation regarding matchday revenue.

"Also, it is unclear how digital media development will affect live crowds 10 years from now. When you are going to be able to watch the match on your wrist watch, is that not going to impact on attendances? We don't really know.

"So because of all those factors, we don't think this is the right time to look at expanding Stamford Bridge or build a new stadium, but what we do have to do is look at new income sources and one of those as everyone knows is naming rights.

"We have a project for that and chief executive Ron Gourlay is doing a darn good job with that. Hopefully in the not-too-distant future we will have something that makes sense for a sponsor and makes sense for Chelsea and our fans."