Chelsea Football Club recently made a profit of almost £200 million from selling their women’s team and other subsidiaries to the club’s parent company. This strategic move helped them avoid breaching the Premier League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) in the last season.

The figure of £198.7 million was revealed on Chelsea's website, although the full 2023-24 accounts are yet to be published. It is believed that the value of the women’s team alone was considerably more than £150 million.

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In addition to this, a profit on player sales amounting to £152.5 million also contributed significantly towards Chelsea registering an overall net profit of £129.6 million despite revenue falling from £512.5 million to £468.5 million due to men's team not competing in Champions League. However, these figures suggest that the club had operating losses of about £170 million.

Exploiting loopholes

Interestingly, Premier League clubs have decided against closing a loophole that allows clubs to register income from selling assets to sister companies - a strategy previously employed by Chelsea when they registered sale of two hotels for £76.5 million.

Despite this clever maneuvering within domestic rules, it appears that Chelsea may still face issues with UEFA as its financial rules do not allow for clubs registering income from selling assets to sister companies.

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Chelsea released statement:

“The profit for the year before taxation was £128.4million compared with a loss of £90.1million for the prior year as the club benefited from increased profit on disposal of player registrations and repositioning of Chelsea Football Club Women Ltd.
“This new approach will ensure CFCW has dedicated resources, management and commercial leadership solely focused on the growth and success of the women’s team.”

Transfer details

Ownership transfer details reveal that ownership of women’s team was transferred over two days before June 30 deadline for 2023-24 finances registration - specifically on June 28th -to Blueco 22 Midco Ltd., which is part of their parent company structure.

With paper value exceeding more than £150 million, this makes Chelsea Women one among world's most valuable women teams; second only behind Angel City in the United States, where women’s football is commercially more successful and was bought for £190 million last year.

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This move by Chelsea demonstrates how sports clubs are finding innovative ways to navigate financial regulations while also highlighting potential areas where governing bodies may need to tighten their rules to ensure fair play across all teams.

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