Chelsea are facing a Uefa fine as the governing body refuses to allow the club to offset losses against the £200 million sale of the women’s team to a sister company.
A likely fine will be agreed, along with a threat of exclusion from European competition in future should they be found in breach of spending limits again.
Settlement talks have begun with the European body which, unlike the Premier League, will exclude the women’s sale figure from spending calculations.
Uefa monitoring for all club finances is ongoing until the end of May, when Chelsea will learn their fate. Multiple insiders confirm dialogue is already under way after The Times first reported a fine was likely.
Pre-tax profit of £128.4m
The exact extent of Chelsea’s potential breach is unclear. A three-year club loss of £358 million appears well in excess of Uefa rules allowing clubs to lose a maximum of £170 million over the same period – but deductions can be made by the club for spending on youth, women’s teams and infrastructure.
Chelsea confirmed last week they valued their women’s team at £200 million before selling it to a related company last year. On Monday, the Stamford Bridge club announced a pre-tax profit of £128.4 million for the year ending June 30, 2024, which they said had been achieved in part by raising £198.7 million from the sale of subsidiaries.
The full accounts have now been published on Companies House and show that the entirety of that £198.7 million was generated from the sale of the women’s team to BlueCo Midco – a subsidiary of the club’s parent company. The accounts show the women’s team was valued at £200 million with £1.3 million of its net assets deducted from the price. Chelsea’s accounts confirm the valuation is still subject to Premier League approval.
They also reveal that the league disagreed with Chelsea’s £76.3 million valuation of two hotels sold in the prior financial year, reducing it by £6 million which Chelsea said was reflected in these most recent accounts.
Despite lavish spending on players since the 2022 takeover, the Premier League confirmed in January that all clubs were compliant for the assessment period ending 2023-24.
The sales of fixed assets such as the hotels and the women’s team to related companies are permitted under Premier League rules provided they are for fair market value. A vote to close the loophole did not receive the required 14-club majority at a clubs vote last summer.
