01/04/2026
Chelsea have confirmed they recorded the highest pre-tax loss in English football history last season, announcing a £262.4million ($349m) deficit in the accounts of Chelsea FC Holdings Limited, the company which houses the club’s men’s team.
That sum differs from the £342m loss disclosed in a UEFA report released at the end of February but, as The Athletic reported at the time, there was always a likelihood the loss per Chelsea’s accounts would differ from that disclosed by UEFA.
European football’s governing body has introduced several rule changes in recent years which seek to capture a club’s true running costs and to exclude what they deem irrelevant income wherever possible.
Those rules do not come into play when a club files its annual financial statements, which are instead governed by wider, non-football-specific accounting rules.
