Chelsea post record loss of £140m

Chelsea FC plc today posted the biggest ever losses of a UK football club.

The Blues have sought to play down the huge £140m loss, which far exceeds the £88 loss recorded by the company on 2004/2005.

In a statement, Chelsea FC chief executive Peter Kenyon said: “These figures reflect the continuing restructuring of the business which we began in 2003/4.

"The overall loss increase is, in the main, down to some exceptional items that were necessary in order to help us achieve our strategic business aim of break even by 2009/10. In simple terms we have taken some pain now for long-term gain."

Chelsea said that the accounts revealed a number of positive business trends including an overall reduction in payroll costs of 6% from £115.5m in 2003/4 to £108.9m.

The club also reduced player acquisition costs from £175m to £101m and said that in the year 2005/6 player acquisition costs are estimated to be £57.5m.

The club attributed the £140m loss as "almost entirely" due to a series of exceptional one-off items.

These included a contract terminated with Umbro that cost £25.5m, a write-off of £13.8m for the transfer of Adrian Mutu and £9m write-off for the transfer of Juan Sebastien Veron, plus a £5m Academy recruitment bill.

“We terminated the Umbro contract which had a huge impact on these figures, but we have not yet seen any of the financial benefit of our new Adidas contract," said Mr Kenyon.

He added that the figures did not include any of the monies from a new sponsorship deal with Samsung, which was the biggest in Premiership history.

“With continued success on the field and the resulting growth stemming from that of our fan base, memberships and revenues, we are confident of achieving our targets," he said.

(SP/KMcA)