Chelsea on Wednesday reported a pre-tax loss of £262.4m during the 2024-25 season, the biggest annual loss ever recorded in English football, surpassing the previous record loss of £197.5m posted by Manchester City in 2010-11.
The club posted a profit of £128.4m in the previous year’s accounts, boosted by the sale of the women’s team to Blueco Midco – a subsidiary company – for almost £200m. Chelsea said the losses were attributable in part to increased operating costs in 2024-25 compared to the previous year.
Revenue was £490.9m, the club said, the second-highest on record for the Blues, and included some of the money earned from last summer’s triumphant Club World Cup run.
Chelsea were deemed compliant with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) for the three-year period ending 2024-25. The rules allow for maximum losses of £105m over three years, but some of the losses clubs post in their financial reports can be added back under PSR – spending on infrastructure, youth development and women’s football for instance.
It is understood those “add backs” of permitted losses ensured Chelsea were deemed PSR-compliant for 2024-25. No clubs have been charged with PSR breaches for the period ending with the 2025-26 season either.
Sources close to Chelsea are believed to be confident the club are now fully structured to comply with all regulatory requirements, and expect to remain compliant. That is understood to include compliance with Uefa’s football earnings rule. Last July, Chelsea were fined €20m (equating to £17.3m at the time) for breaching the rule, with a further fine of over £50m payable if compliance was not achieved over a four-year period.
The club did not publish the full accounts on their website on Wednesday morning, but it is understood these have been submitted to Companies House. Chelsea are believed to be forecasting revenue of over £700m for the 2025-26 season.
Chelsea had spent around £1.5bn on transfers as of last summer since the new ownership group featuring the American businessman Todd Boehly bought the club from the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in the summer of 2022, but club sources say their transfer sales figures last summer were the highest in Premier League history.
Club insiders also said Chelsea’s spending on agents was at or below the Premier League average mark.
Chelsea are understood to be anticipating a financial rather than sporting sanction from the Football Association after admitting to breaches of its rules regarding payments to agents under the ownership of Abramovich. Any fines incurred are set to be covered by money held back by the Boehly consortium in the purchase of Chelsea.
The club avoided a points deduction after entering into a sanction agreement with the Premier League, which also investigated £47.5m of undisclosed payments during the Abramovich era. Chelsea were fined £10.75m and given a suspended one-year transfer ban as recognition of the cooperation it gave to the Premier League.
Chelsea also announced on Wednesday that their women’s team (Chelsea Football Club Women Ltd) posted a loss of £17.1m, despite generating £21.3m in revenue.
In February, a Uefa report put Chelsea’s losses for 2025 even higher – at €407m (£355m). Sources close to the club say the difference between that loss figure and the one reported by the club on Wednesday is due to the different reporting requirements applied by European football’s governing body.
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