Chelsea are set to announce profits of almost £20m and a record turnover of around £325m when the Premier League leaders release their annual financial results.
The current Premier League leaders will report a turnover of £325m for the year up to June 30, and will comfortably pass UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) test thanks to the funds brought in by the sale of Juan Mata and David Luiz, plus their share of the new £1bn television deal.
Chelsea ran up losses of more than £600m during Roman Abramovich’s first 10 years of ownership, but this is a huge financial step forward for Chelsea, as it shows that they can compete with the big clubs in Europe both on and off the pitch.
The key to meeting Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules for Chelsea has been the club’s recent activity in the transfer market. In 2013-14, Chelsea made a profit of 47m euros, despite adding Willian, Nemanja Matic and André Schürrle to the squad, due to the sale of Juan Mata to Manchester United for £37.1m in January.
Then before June 30, Chelsea sold David Luiz to Paris Saint-Germanin for £50m, a transfer fee that contributed significantly to Chelsea’s profit.
Chelsea generate by far the least amount of money from matchday revenues of any of the big clubs in England or Europe due to the small capacity of Stamford Bridge. A skeptic will look at Chelsea’s numbers and wonder who they can continue to be profitable going forward unless they see someone for £40m every year?
Chelsea Profit/Loss Under Abramovich
- 2004 – Loss £74.7m
- 2005 – Loss £131.6m
- 2006 – Loss £77.1m
- 2007 – Loss £65.6m
- 2008 – Loss £69.2m
- 2009 – Loss £45.8m
- 2010 – Loss £69.2m
- 2011 – Loss £70.7m
- 2012 – Profit £1.4m
- 2013 – Loss £49.4m
