Chelsea will Comply with Premier League Financial Regulations

Todd Boehly, the American owner of Chelsea, is optimistic that his team won’t violate the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) even though the team’s most recent financial statements indicate losses of £89.1 million ($111 million) for the fiscal year that concludes in June 2019.

According to Premier League regulations, a club is only allowed to lose £105 million in total over three years. This season, Everton and Nottingham Forest were penalized points for surpassing this limit.

Chelsea made a profit of £36 million in the 2019–20 season, but their £121.4 million losses from the previous campaign will not be factored into the PSR calculations when they are released in December.

“The club continues to balance success on the field together with the financial imperatives of complying with UEFA and Premier League financial regulations,” Boehly said in the accounts.

After Boehly took over the team in May 2022, the West London team’s player acquisitions have come under intense scrutiny. As a result, Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville referred to the team’s purchases as “billion-pound bottle jobs” after they lost to a young Liverpool team in the Carabao Cup final in February.

Although £745.2 million was spent on talent during the 2022–2023 fiscal year, the accounts indicate that an additional £454.1 million has been spent on players since then, including the signings of Moisés Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, and Cole Palmer.

In that period, Chelsea has also raised funds by selling players. Notable examples include the trade of Kai Havertz to Arsenal, Kalidou Koulibaly to Al Hilal of the Saudi Pro League, and Timo Werner to RB Leipzig.

The financial records also demonstrate Chelsea’s significant increase in player wage spending, which increased from £340.2 million for the fiscal year that ended in 2022 to £404 million in 2023, the second-highest amount in the division behind treble winners Manchester City.

The accounts also indicate that if Chelsea hadn’t sold hotel buildings to its parent company BlueCo for £76.3 million, the losses for 2022–2023 would have been greater. The Premier League is the only professional football league in England that permits asset sales to be included in its financial rule calculations, unlike the English Football League, which runs the other divisions of the sport.

According to sources who spoke with ESPN, a proposal to amend that rule was examined in 2021 but was not put to a vote because of opposition from Premier League clubs.

The reports are based on data from the Football Association, which revealed Chelsea paid intermediaries £75 million in agent fees, more than any other Premier League club.

“The club has complied with these since their inception in 2012 and expects to do so in the foreseeable future.”