Chelsea finances: Uefa to assess Chelsea accounts at end of season

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Sport:

It’s certainly an unprecedented level of profit which we’ve not seen before. At the same time, nobody’s quite certain how much a women’s team is worth.

Chelsea had to submit their accounts to the Premier League by 31 December 2024. The Premier League had two weeks to review them to take things further and decided not to, so it must be satisfied.

Chelsea certainly benefit from being in a very upmarket part of London, so therefore the ability to sell those hotels as real estate assets is more beneficial to them.

There has been an enthusiasm from some club owners to outlaw this particular rule. It’s not possible to sell your assets to yourself and book profits in the EFL. The rules under Uefa are complex and difficult to understand, but then again it’s not guaranteed that Chelsea will be able to utilise these profits.

Uefa tends to fine clubs for breaching the financial rules as opposed to on-field penalties, so if I was a Nottingham Forest or Everton fan I suspect I would feel very aggrieved, because they have been punished severely in terms of historical points deductions for spending money, but spending far less money than Chelsea.

But the Premier League owners have decided to allow this particular feature and it does seem strange, but it’s their ball and that’s how they are choosing to play with it.