Chelsea record loss of £342m in one season, breaking English records – but there’s a reason | OneFootball

Chelsea’s historic losses from last season are the biggest in English football history, although there is some context around them.

The Athletic have just published a piece containing some pretty scary for Chelsea fans regarding the club’s finances.

Digesting the numbers released by UEFA, the outlet reports that Chelsea “booked the highest pre-tax loss in English football history in the 2024-25 season.”

In their third full season under the control of the new ownership, the club recorded an insane £342m pre-tax deficit. Only Barcelona’s Covid hit 2020-2021 losses of €555m were greater, and we can all see what’s happened to them since.

Chelsea deliberately take their medicine in one go

Paul Winstanley walks alongside Todd Boehly

A source speaking to the Athletic pointed out that, much like Barcelona that year, Chelsea had put as many future losses into one season as possible, absorbing all the negatives at once and allowing them (hopefully) a clearer and quicker path out.

The source said “last season reflected a tidying up of historic issues, with several high-cost, one-off items booked into the same financial reporting period. Let’s hope so.

Either way, it doesn’t bode well for any sort of big spending in the near future. The prospects of turning this squad into a title contender are looking narrower than ever. The good news is that we have remained within the bounds of our existing settlement deal with UEFA for overspending, so no direct further punishment should be coming from them.

In other news…

Malo Gusto gave some great answers to questions about his teammates in an interview on the club’s official website this week.

Kieran Gill has written in his Chelsea Confidential piece this week that Mamadou Sarr is in line for a first Blues start in the Premier League following Wesley Fofana’s suspension.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: