Chelsea Football Club has found a way to meet Premier League financial regulations by selling their women`s team to their own parent company for nearly £200 million.
While the complete financial report for the year ending June 30, 2024, is still pending, Chelsea announced a pre-tax profit of £128.4 million. This is a significant turnaround from the £90.1 million loss reported the previous year.
Premier League officials confirmed in January that no club had exceeded the allowed loss limit of £105 million over three seasons, which meant Chelsea`s accounts were approved.
Chelsea`s statement mentioned “increased profit on disposal of player registrations and repositioning of Chelsea Football Club Women Ltd” due to “a profit on disposal of subsidiaries of £198.7m”.
It is believed that the sale of the women`s team to BlueCo 22, the parent company, made up most of this extra income, although the exact amount is not public.
This follows the previous season`s sale of two hotels located at Stamford Bridge to the same parent company.
In total, Chelsea has generated £275 million over two seasons through these “inter-group accounting profits” from selling assets to BlueCo, the company primarily owned by Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.
Since the takeover in 2022, after Roman Abramovich was required to sell his shares, Chelsea has spent over £1 billion on new players.
Last season alone, their spending exceeded £400 million on players like Moises Caiceido, Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer, Christopher Nkunku, and Romeo Lavia.
However, due to the accounting practice of spreading these costs over several years, the annual accounts only reflect £80 million in expenses for these signings, in addition to similar amounts from previous player acquisitions.
Chelsea also made nearly £240 million from outgoing player transfers, including Arsenal`s £65 million purchase of Kai Havertz. This resulted in a reported “profit on disposal of player registrations of £152.5 million.”
Despite these financial maneuvers, Chelsea`s overall revenue decreased to £468.5 million, a £44 million drop, mainly because the men`s team did not participate in the Champions League.
Recently, BlueCo 22 also raised £65 million by selling equity shares, with the distribution seemingly mirroring the ownership structure of the club.
Fans have expressed concern over these financial strategies.
One fan commented, “It`s like a hedge fund that plays football.”
Another stated, “This financial approach is unsustainable.”
One fan joked, “Next year, they`ll sell themselves the lawnmower for £90 million.”
Another added, “They will soon run out of assets to sell to themselves.”
