Chelsea claim 'complete nonsense' to fans: 'Sustainability that is simply not there'
04/01/2025 01:26 PM
Chelsea have been questioned over the way they’ve presented their financial situation to fans by Stefan Borson.
The football finance expert has suggested that the Blues have not been entirely clear about the self-sufficiency of the club.
Under owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, the Stamford Bridge outfit have continued to invest heavily in their playing squad, although that inevitably puts the club under pressure.
With Chelsea, like any team, having to ensure they can meet Profit and Sustainability Regulations with their finances in order to avoid punishment from the Premier League.
That now appears to have forced the club to get extremely creative in order to ensure they escape scrutiny from the league.
Stefan Borson questions clarity of Chelsea financial statement
Speaking recently to Football Insider, Borson suggested that Chelsea are confident of avoiding any breach of PSR in their latest financial review.
It has been suggested that one way they would do that, is to sell the Chelsea women’s team to their own parent company BlueCo.
On Moday (31 March), the club announced their accounts for the most recent financial year, headlining them with a pre-tax profit of £128.4million, with the sale of the women’s team playing a part in that.
Borson has now suggested that profit has only been generated by sales to themselves, such as has been done with the women’s team and hotels on the Stamford Bridge site, with operating losses otherwise shown to be over £200million.
The football finance expert has indicated that will only remain a sustainable approach for Chelsea, for as long as their owners are happy to continue to put money into the club.
| Chelsea last five games | Result |
| Southampton (H) | Won 4-0 |
| Copenhagen (A) | Won 2-1 |
| Leicester (H) | Won 1-0 |
| Copenhagen (H) | Won 1-0 |
| Arsenal (A) | Lost 1-0 |
Consequently, Borson has implied that the club are not being entirely transparent with their fans over finances, as he told talkSPORT: “I would never deny that Chelsea and their owners are able to do exactly what they wish to do in respect of how they operate the club, it’s completely fine.
“But from a PSR perspective we just shouldn’t confuse headline profitability based on intra-group sales, which are completely accounting tricks, versus underlying business performance.
After Simon Jordan asked who might have been making that confusion, Borson continued: “The headline, and they tried to lead their fans to believe that there is a difference between last year and this year.
“So I would say Chelsea themselves are trying to dictate to their fans a level of sustainability that is simply not there at the moment.
“Nowhere in Chelsea’s announcement that they made yesterday does it say ‘our operating losses continue to run at over £200million’.
“They [also] tried to make out historically that they’d reduced the average wage to £60,000 per week which is complete nonsense when you actually see the real wage bill that we actually do see from various reports.”
Borson then went on to explain that the situation will continue to be sustainable for as long as the club’s owners are happy to keep investing in such a way.
Todd Boehly investment crucial for the future
Football Insider Verdict
It is no secret to anyone within football that Chelsea have spent a huge amount of money in putting together the squad that they have.
As a result the pressure is always going to be on them to meet regulations from a financial persepctive, something they have often found ways around.
But with suggestions Chelsea could be set for a move to a new stadium at Earl’s Court in the near future, financial pressure may soon increase on the club even more.
In that situation, fans will want reassurance that they are indeed in a sustainable position, and Borson’s suggestion here will not help with that.
Boehly and Clearlake are therefore under pressure to effectively manage the coming years from both a financial and communication perspective.
Success on the pitch will also help bring in more funds to the club, and with Chelsea fans already unhappy with Enzo Maresca, the pressure on the manager to deliver success may now increase further as well.
The post Chelsea claim 'complete nonsense' to fans: 'Sustainability that is simply not there' appeared first on Football Insider.
