Chelsea finances: Blues announce biggest pre-tax loss of any club in Premier League history

Chelsea have announced the biggest pre-tax loss ever recorded by a Premier League club.

Chelsea's pre-tax loss of £262.4m for the year ending June 30 2025 surpasses the £197.5m posted by Manchester City for the 2010/11 season.

The announcement comes just three weeks on from the club being hit with the Premier League's biggest-ever fine and a one-year suspended transfer ban for self-reported financial breaches which occurred historically during the Roman Abramovich era.

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Chelsea said this record loss was attributable in part to increased operating costs in 2024/25 compared to the previous year.

Revenue is up to £490.9m, the second highest on record for the club.

It is understood Chelsea expect that figure to rise even higher in 2025/26, potentially to £700m.

That is down to bumper player sales in the transfer market, which amounted to £314.4m last summer. Noni Madueke (£52m, to Arsenal), Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£29m, to Everton) and Djorde Petrovic (£25m, to Bournemouth) were among those deals.

Their successful Club World Cup sits across the 2024/25 and 2025/26 accounting years. They finished fourth last season under Enzo Maresca and won the Conference League.

Chelsea posted a profit of £128.4m in the previous year's accounts, boosted by the sale of the women's team to Blueco Midco - a subsidiary company - for almost £200m.

Chelsea also announced on Wednesday that their women's team (Chelsea Football Club Women Ltd) posted a loss of £17.1m, despite generating £21.3m in revenue.

The Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) only allow maximum losses of £105m over three years but clubs are able to add back some losses with spending on, for instance, infrastructure, youth development and women's football.

Chelsea - like all other clubs - have been found to be compliant with PSR up to the three-year period ending 2024/25.

Chelsea were fined 20m euros (equating to £17.3m at the time) for breaching UEFA's football earnings rule in July, with a further fine of over £50m payable if compliance was not achieved over a four-year period.

Chelsea are believed to be confident the club are now fully structured to comply with all regulatory requirements, and expect to remain compliant.

In February, a UEFA report put Chelsea's losses for 2025 even higher - at 407m euros (£355m). Sources close to the club say the difference between that loss figure and the one reported by the club on Wednesday is due to the different reporting requirements applied by European football's governing body.

Chelsea pay agents more than £65m in 12 months

Chelsea paid agents £65m over the past year, a Premier League high.

The FA released figures from February 2025-February 2026 which shows over £460m has gone to agents in that period.

Aston Villa were the next highest spenders on agent fees, with £38.4m attributed to them, with Manchester City listed as paying £37.36m.

At the other end of the scale, Burnley were reported to have paid agents £7.36m over the 12 months.

The FA also revealed Championship clubs paid out £69.7m on agent fees over the period, while that figure was £14m for League One sides and £2.6m for League Two teams.

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