Chelsea Women Thread

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Chelsea’s sale of women’s team to themselves still being assessed by Premier League

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6252232/2025/04/04/Chelsea-ffp-womens-team-sale/

Chelsea’s sale of their women’s team to themselves is still being assessed by the Premier League and will not count towards UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

On Monday, Chelsea released a statement regarding their financial results for the year ending June 30, 2024, and reported a pre-tax profit of £128.4million.

They registered a profit of £198.7m through the sale of their women’s team and other subsidiaries to themselves.

Chelsea transferred ownership of their women’s team to the club’s parent company — BlueCo 22 Midco Ltd — just two days before the 2023-24 finances were due to be registered on June 30.

The club’s statement noted £198.7m had been registered as a “profit on disposal of subsidiaries”, meaning the women’s team was either sold for just shy of £200m or contributes to that overall figure.

Although the Premier League announced earlier this year that no clubs had been charged with a breach of its profitability and sustainability Rules (PSR) for 2023-24, it is still assessing the sale of Chelsea Women from a fair market value standpoint.

This is the same process that took place for the 2022-23 financial year when Chelsea sold two hotels — the Copthorne and Millennium — to a sister company in a transaction worth £76.5million. Chelsea noted at the time that they had appointed two independent valuers to assess their valuation of the hotels. Following the fair market value process carried out by the Premier League, the £76.5m was adjusted, although neither party confirmed the amount.

Catch Up On The Story

How did Chelsea stay compliant with PSR?

Despite no Champions League revenue and having a poor domestic season in 2023-24, Chelsea stayed on the right side of Premier League rules

UEFA’s rules, however, are more rigid and do not allow for the sale of tangible assets to sister companies to count towards their FFP calculations.

Clubs’ financial submissions are analysed and reviewed in accordance with Article 66 of UEFA’s Club Licensing and Financial Sustainability Regulations.

If applicable, profits from the sale of assets are neutralised and only the excess proceeds are taken into account. Any income that is neutralised or removed is not considered as relevant for UEFA’s regulations.

European football’s governing body permits teams competing in their club competitions to lose up to €90m — if UEFA deems their balance sheet to be in good order — over a three-year reporting cycle.

If Chelsea are found to have breached UEFA’s regulations, then the most likely outcome is a fine, given the governing body has dished out this punishment in the past. In September 2022, UEFA charged eight clubs with failing to comply with FFP, including French side Paris Saint-Germain who were hit with a €10m fine after failing to stay within the FFP limits. Manchester United were finned €300k in July 2023 for a “minor” breach of FFP rules.

Chelsea sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, say the club is comfortable with their position and are not anticipating any issues.

At the same time PSG were fined, the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) First Chamber, an independent panel within UEFA tasked with policing FFP, announced that Chelsea, along with a host of other clubs competing in Europe in 2021-22, were going to be “monitored closely”.

 

PSG were fined €10m for a UEFA FFP breach in 2022 (Julien de Rosa/AFP via Getty Images)

“The profit for the year before taxation was £128.4m compared with a loss of £90.1m for the prior year as the club benefitted from increased profit on disposal of player registrations and repositioning of Chelsea Football Club Women Ltd,” the club’s statement on Monday read.

“Decreased operating expenses, including matchday and non-matchday costs, profits on disposal of player registrations of £152.5m and a profit on disposal of subsidiaries of £198.7m, led to the group recording an overall net profit of £129.6m after tax.”

The sale of the women’s team to the club’s parent company will almost certainly have helped Chelsea stay compliant with PSR in 2023-24.

PSR allows Premier League sides to lose no more than £105m over a three-year cycle, although deductions are allowed to be made for investing in youth development, women’s football, infrastructure and community work.

At the Premier League’s Annual General Meeting in June, not enough top-flight clubs voted in favour of stopping clubs from being able to sell fixed assets to themselves.
Even though it was voted against last summer, that is not to say there will not be another vote on it in the future.

For the proposal to be put to a vote again, another club, or even the Premier League, would have to table the motion. However, the general consensus is that it will not happen any time soon as not enough clubs are talking about it.