Chelsea Football Club have released their annual financial results and it appears that it cost them £23.1 million to win the Premier League last season.
The London-based club is owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and is considered to be one of the richest in the world, with their improvement in performance on the pitch coinciding with Abramovich’s arrival in England. They have reportedly spent over a billion pounds of his money during that time.
The £23.1 million loss meant they were able to remain within the limits of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations, with the club chairman saying that is something that they consider to be very important, “It was a primary aim in the past financial year to be one of the clubs with a continuous record of meeting the regulations”.
The club’s revenues for the last year were £314.3 million, which is less than the record of £319.8 million that they achieved in the 2013-2014 season. Buck expects revenues to improve in the coming year or so, however, with a lucrative shirt sponsorship deal worth £40 million a season due to kick in soon. He said, “These will be powered by new commercial deals, including our record-breaking partnership with Yokohama. They will also be enhanced by revenues related to this season’s Champions League which improve due to entering as Premier League champions and an increase in TV revenue for English clubs”.
With Chelsea struggling on the pitch and their manager Jose Mourinho coming under increasing pressure, Buck is hoping that the club can qualify for the knockout stages of the Champion’s League in order to relieve the financial burden on the club’s owner.