Chelsea have released their 2021/22 financial results, a period that runs until June 30th 2022, and revealed they made a net loss of £121.3million over the course of the season. The Blues say that despite this they continue to comply with both UEFA and Premier League financial regulations.
The loss comes amid a season where Chelsea were impacted by sanctions placed on former owner Roman Abramovich in March 2022 and were required to operate under a special licence which prevented players being offered new deals as well as the ability to sell merchandise and tickets, to name a few things. The west London side claim that this resulted in 'extraordinary expenses and loss of revenue'.
Such restrictions were of course in place until the takeover was completed by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital on May 30 2022, meaning the final month of the financial period was under new ownership. However, the club do note that they expect the way the were required to operate to have an impact on their future financial reports due to long term impact of not being able to enter into new contractual arrangements.
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Nevertheless it appears the club were able to make strides in some areas despite the limitations that were in place from March. Turnover increased from £434.9million to £481.3million due increased revenues driven by the return of supporters on matchdays and commercial revenue increased to £177.1million, despite broadcast revenue dropping due to lower UEFA Champions League distribution.
The Blues suggest that despite higher revenue, that increased operating costs contributed to the club recording a loss 'before player impairments and one-off expenses of £26.6million' to result in the £121.3million net loss.
Chelsea's transfer market operations saw profit in the period, however. The Blues spent £118million on transfers and existing player contract renegotiations - a figure dominated by the transfer of Romelu Lukaku but were able to bring in £123.2million. That figure was predominantly achieved by selling players developed through Cobham. The likes of Tammy Abraham, Marc Guehi and Fikayo Tomori each brought in significant figures in addition to Kurt Zouma.
The Blues have since undergone a change in tact in their transfer operations having recorded a £600million spend since the arrival of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali at the club. Chelsea have made significant outlays to sign the likes of Enzo Fernandez, Wesley Fofana, Mykhailo Mudryk and a number of others and have attempted to ensure homegrown talent remained tied to the club when there was perhaps on opportunity to sell the likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi, Levi Colwill and others.
Of course, it can be argued some of the transfer activity has been driven by the sanctions with new contracts unable to be promptly agreed, while some would suggest it ruined the chance of extending the deals of Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, who required big-money replacements.
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