Revealed: Chelsea board approve £50m payment amid ‘extraordinary’ claim
Chelsea shelled out nearly £50million in fees relating to the sale of the club to a consortium fronted by Todd Boehly last May, Football Insider can reveal.
The payments were detailed in the 2021-22 accounts, which were released via Companies House last Saturday (8 April) and presented an astonishing operating loss of £235m.
The deficit was halved by player sales, with the final numbers showing a £121.3m shortfall on total revenues of £481m.
The financial year was an unprecedentedly turbulent time for Chelsea as former owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government for his links to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
That meant the West Londoners were stripped of several revenue-generative streams such as ticketing and merchandise sales between March and May.
Chelsea attributed some of 2021-22’s financial losses to “extraordinary expenses and loss of revenue” that came about as a result of the sanctions imposed on Abramovich and subsequent change of ownership.
The club said it believes that the restrictions will also have a residual impact on the 2022-23 accounts when the time comes for them to be released.
The main expense during the regime change was remuneration to former directors, who banked £49.75m, with the bulk of that figure going to Abramovich consigliere Marina Granovskaia.
She has earned £35m, and the remaining cash was split between other executives, including long-standing former chief executive Bruce Buck.
Chelsea are in a precarious position when it comes to financial fair play after spending close to £600m on new recruits since Boehly’s arrival.
A fire sale will be necessary this summer if they are to avoid Premier League sanctions.
Their problems will be exacerbated if they have no European football next season, with their only realistic route to the Champions League now being to win the competition itself.
In other news, European club plan to sign Chelsea star Hakim Ziyech as extensive talks held.