Chelsea face PFA inquest into 'ABUSIVE CONDUCT' of forgotten stars

Suraj Radia

• 18 Sept 2025 15:45 BST
• 4 min read

News

Chelsea could face action from the Professional Footballers’ Association, with talks being held over their treatment of Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi.

Both players are training away from Enzo Maresca’s first team after failing to agree moves to leave Stamford Bridge during the summer, having fallen out of the Chelsea manager’s plans.

Compared

Raheem Sterling 

F, AM (R), M (L)

Chelsea

Raheem Sterling 

F, AM (R), M (L)

Chelsea

VS

Axel Disasi

D (CR)

Chelsea

Axel Disasi

D (CR)

Chelsea

€11.8M	ETV	€25.2M
€10.6M - €13M	ETV Range	€22.6M - €27.7M
30 years old (08 Dec, 1994)	Age	27 years old (11 Mar, 1998)
England	Nationality	France

According to the BBC, the situation has led to the players’ union intervening to ensure that Sterling and Disasi have the platform to train to an optimum level despite not being involved with the first team.

Fifa has strict regulations over players isolated from first team squads in order to avoid anything that could constitute as ‘abusive conduct’ by the club, which may allow a player to terminate their contract through ‘just cause’.

It is believed the PFA has sought to ensure Fifa’s regulations are being met, with both players unlikely to have any first team involvement until the transfer window opens again in January, at which point Celtic could take interest in Sterling according to FootballTransfers' sources.

Sterling is in the final two years of his contract at Chelsea, worth more than €30 million, while Disasi’s deal expires in 2029.

No way back for Sterling and Disasi at Chelsea

Both Sterling and Disasi were part of Chelsea’s ‘bomb squad’ of players who have long been told that they have no future under Maresca and would be required to train independently to their teammates.

Although the likes of Ben Chilwell, Armando Broja and Joao Felix were also sentenced to the same fate, those players eventually found moves away, leaving Sterling and Disasi as the only two remaining players outside the first team.

Neither player was given a squad number or included in Chelsea’s Premier League or Champions League squad, while Maresca has insisted that there is no way back into his plans for them after unsuccessful loan spells away last season, when they were also available for transfer.

Sterling has resisted moves away from London in order to avoid uprooting his family while Disasi was holding out for a switch to former club Monaco which failed to materialise before the transfer window closed.

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