‘Hedge fund with shin pads’ – Chelsea sell women’s team to THEMSELVES in loophole to avoid PSR punishment
CHELSEA avoided a Premier League PSR charge by selling their women’s team to THEMSELVES for up to nearly £200m.
While full figures for the 12 months to June 30 2024 have yet to be published, the Stamford Bridge outfit declared a pre-tax profit of £128.4m, compared to a loss of £90.1m, the previous year.
January’s confirmation by Prem chiefs that no club had breached the “allowed losses” limit of £105m over three seasons meant Chelsea accounts were cleared.
But in its statement, Chelsea said: “The club benefited from increased profit on disposal of player registrations and repositioning of Chelsea Football Club Women Ltd” after “a profit on disposal of subsidiaries of £198.7m”.
While the precise amount raised by the sale of the women’s team to parent company BlueCo 22 remains unclear, it is understood that it represented the vast majority of the extra income.
That comes on top of the previous season’s sale of the two hotels on the Stamford Bridge site to the parent company.
In total, over two seasons, Chelsea have now earned £275m in what is known as “inter-group accounting profit” from disposal of assets to the company whose major shareholders are Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.
Chelsea have spent more than £1bn on player signings since the takeover which followed Roman Abramovich being forced to sell his shares in 2022.
Last season saw them spending more than £400m on players including Moises Caiceido, Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer, Christopher Nkunku and Romeo Lavia.
But the club’s ability to “amortise” that expenditure over five years meant a spend of £80m in the annual accounts on top of a similar sum for previous signings.
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Chelsea received nearly £240m in outgoing players, including the £65m Arsenal paid to take Kai Havertz across the capital, declaring a “profit on disposal of player registrations of £152.5m”.
That came despite revenues falling to £468.5m – down £44m – “due to the men’s team not competing in the Champions League”.
The news comes just days after it emerged that BlueCo 22 had raised £65m by selling equity shares, in proportions which appeared to echo the holdings of the club’s owners.
Fans reacted with dismay to the news.
One said: “It’s a hedge fund with shin pads.”
Another declared: “This is not sustainable.”
One noted: “Next year we’re selling ourselves the lawnmower for £90m.”
Another added: “Going to run out of stuff to sell themselves soon.”