Chelsea to put up a dozen players for auction
Chelsea London have released their financials for the financial year ending June 30, 2022. The club suffered a loss of £121.3m, which is quite comparable to the most financially unsuccessful 2020/21 season in the team’s history. But if two years ago the pandemic was to blame, this time the team’s losses are explained by the fact that its former owner Roman Abramovich fell under the sanctions of the British government. Chelsea believe that the consequences of restrictive measures against Mr. Abramovich will affect the finances of Londoners in the future. How they will be affected by crazy – £ 500 million – spending on the purchase of players this season, is not specified.
On Monday, English Premier League (EPL) club Chelsea reported on financial performance in the last financial year (ended June 30, 2022). The data is disappointing: Chelsea suffered a net loss of £ 121.3 million . Thus, the Londoners ended the second consecutive financial year with big losses. In the reporting for the 2020/21 season, there was a record loss for the team – £ 153.4 million. However, then all the top clubs remained in the red zone, as they were hit hard by the restrictions imposed amid the pandemic.
The new report cited sanctions imposed by the British authorities on former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich as the main reason for the losses (this happened in the spring of last year, shortly after the events in Ukraine began), and the subsequent restrictions on the activities of assets under his control, including, in fact, ” Chelsea. “The club has been restricted in a number of areas, including the sale of tickets and season tickets, the sale of club-branded merchandise, the holding of events, and the signing of contracts with players and commercial partners,” the club said in a statement. All this led to “increased spending and loss of income.”
How “increased” these expenses turned out to be is not specified. Apparently serious, since even the fact that Chelsea’s income increased by £46.4 million compared to the previous reporting period and reached £481.3 million did not save from the loss.
The restrictions the club mentions were really nasty. In addition to the aforementioned ban on the sale of match tickets and the sale of club-branded merchandise, Chelsea’s prize money and broadcasting rights were frozen. The club was also not allowed to sell and buy players, as well as renew expiring contracts of players. The authorities also limited the club’s spending. All this was done, as noted by the Minister of digital technologies, culture, media and sports of Great Britain Nadine Dorris, in order to make sure that no money generated by the club’s activities would fall into the hands of Roman Abramovich.
However, under the sanctions, Chelsea did not stay long. They were introduced on March 10, and removed on May 30, after Roman Abramovich sold the club to Todd Böli. The American, taking into account his long-term commitment to invest in the development of the club, Chelsea will cost a total of £ 4.25 billion (the club itself cost about £ 2.5 billion). However, Chelsea said in a statement that “some of these restrictions are expected to have a negative impact on the club’s finances in the future due to their impact on the signing of new agreements.”
Note that the current reporting does not include the last two transfer windows: summer 2022 and winter 2023. And their Chelsea had a hit, spending an insane £500m on the purchase of players. The net balance of purchases and sales was minus £477m. Against the background of such expenses, the club, in order to balance the budget and not have problems with compliance with the rules of financial fair-play (FFP ), you need to sell players. As previously reported by the talksport portal, in the summer the Londoners can part with 12 players and get about £ 264 million for them.