By David Owen
February 11 – Accounts have been filed for Chelsea, showing that the West London club appears to have repaid a modest amount of funding to Russian owner Roman Abramovich in 2019-20.
Accounts for the entity Chelsea FC plc state that “funding is provided by the parent company, Fordstam Limited, which is supported by the ultimate controlling party, Mr R. Abramovich. The group has repaid net funding of £4.5 million during the last financial year.”
Notes to the accounts put amounts owed to a parent undertaking within one year at £46.6 million at June 30, down from £71.2 million. However, a separate set of accounts filed for another corporate entity, Chelsea Football Club Limited, puts amounts falling due to group undertakings after more than one year at a towering £923.6 million. This in itself is down from just over £1 billion a year earlier.
As already reported, the Blues – who recently replaced Frank Lampard as head coach with ex-Paris Saint-Germain boss Thomas Tuchel – will be one of the few, indeed perhaps the only, Premier League outfit to post a substantial profit for the covid-blighted 2019-20 season.
The club was unable to sign new players during the summer 2019 transfer window. The big fee agreed with Real Madrid for the signing of Belgian playmaker Eden Hazard, meanwhile, largely enabled Chelsea to post a profit of £142.6 million on the disposal of player registrations. This more than offset an operating loss of £111.6 million and resulted in a pre-tax profit of £35.7 million.
Even with its transfer situation, it is worth noting that the club appears to have shelled out more cash on players in the period under review than it recouped from disposals. A group cash flow statement puts cash flowing out on the purchase of “intangible assets” at £109.2 million against £80.8 million in proceeds on disposals. The corresponding year-earlier figures were £282. 2 million outlaid on purchases and £119.8 million recouped on disposals.
The new accounts also show that aggregate remuneration edged down in 2019-20 to £283.5 million, versus £285.6 million the previous year. This amounts to just under 70% of turnover.
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