Blues unfazed despite £49m losses

Chelsea last night insisted they still satisfy Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations despite making a loss of £49.4 million (€59.3m) in the last financial year.

The financial results for the year ending June 30, 2013, show a record £255.8m (€307.4m) turnover — the fourth successive year it has increased — despite exiting the Champions League at the 2012/13 group stage.

Chelsea enjoyed a 19% rise in commercial income from £67m (€80.5m) to £79.6m (€95.6m) as they won the Europa League, although a reduction in income from the success of winning the previous year’s Champions League contributed to the £49.4m (€59.3m) loss.

Despite that, Jose Mourinho’s side will satisfy FFP regulations as the two-year monitoring period includes the £1.4m (€1.6m) profit made in the 2011/12 season.

The Blues also see around £15m (€18m) knocked off their overall loss in add backs, which includes infrastructure costs, youth development costs and charitable donations, amongst other outgoings.

That brings Chelsea’s losses for the period to approximately £34m (€40.8m), falling under the FFP threshold of €45m (£37.5m).

“From the very beginning of the current ownership of Chelsea FC, a long-term objective was financial sustainability, and the subsequent implementation of Financial Fair Play by Uefa and by the Premier League has brought that to the top of the agenda for football clubs,” Blues chairman Bruce Buck said.

“We are pleased therefore that we will meet the stipulations set down by Uefa in their first assessment period, and by our own analysis we are progressing from a commercial viewpoint as well as continuing to add trophies to our collection, which we never lose sight of as our most important goal.”

The next financial year’s results will be boosted by, amongst other things, a new 10-year kit deal with Adidas. The deal is thought to be worth £300m (€360m) and, while announced in June, will be recorded from the 2013/14 accounts.

Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay said: “Our philosophy is we build upon success on the pitch and although in these financial results we haven’t repeated the sizeable profits made the previous year from player transfers, we believe the age profile of the existing squad means we will benefit from that investment for many years to come.”