Whether it is compliance with the current Premier League profit and sustainability rules (PSR), or the forthcoming squad cost ratio rule, Chelsea have some work to do.
Last month the accounts of the club’s parent company, BlueCo 22, gave a snapshot of the club’s financial position, with £90.1m of pre-tax losses for the 2022/23 financial period. But it wasn't until the publication of the full accounts of Chelsea FC Holdings Limited on Friday that the full picture became clear.
It was a financial period that included the first full year under the ownership of the Todd Boehly/Clearlake Capital consortium that acquired the club in May 2022, and a period that saw the club embark on a transfer strategy that has to the present day seen more than £1bn spent on signing new talent, altering the landscape of the transfer market in the process.
With revenue of £512m, Chelsea sits fifth in the Premier League table, but in terms of its wage bill, that has shot up to £404m, second highest in the league, while player amortisation charges (the way in which transfer fees are accounted for) is now at £203m, the largest in the league by some £33m.
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All of this has been done against a backdrop of losing money, and two seasons of considerable underachievement domestically and internationally. Next year will mark another season outside of the Champions League for Chelsea, something that can deliver more than £100m a year for clubs, and a competition that Boehly and Clearlake felt they would be part of from the get-go.
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