Chelsea have confirmed the sale of part of their training ground to another company in Todd Boehly’s network.
The news confirms what was speculated last week: that Chelsea have effectively sold part of the Cobham complex to themselves in order to ease their financial fair play situation.
Now, as relayed by finance expert Stefan Borson on Twitter, a Companies House update has confirmed the deal in what is sure to be another controversial instance of the club looking to work around the Premier League‘s spending rules.
How much will Chelsea make from training ground sale?
There is no specific financial information in terms of how much the sale from Chelsea to Boehly-owned Blueco 22 is worth.
It is important to note that it appears that the sale is of one of five sites that constitute the training ground.
Benchmarking against other comparable training grounds, the figure for all five sites would probably be somewhere in the region of £25m.
How will this affect Chelsea’s FFP situation?
In theory, all of the money raised from the sale is deductible from Chelsea’s FFP (now called profit and sustainability rules, or PSR for short) budget.
This could be significant at a time when the Premier League is brining in a new squad cost control ratio and financial anchoring system.
With some calculations estimating that the club could be over £200m over the threshold based on their last set of accounts, this latest development may be welcomed by Chelsea fans.
However, there may also be a significant proportion who are not comfortable with seeing a piece of the club’s permanent infrastructure being traded to circumvent PSR rules.
News of the deal follows the revelation that Chelsea have also sold two on-site hotels at Stamford Bridge to Blueco 22 in a deal worth £76m for similar FFP-related reasons.
As both sales have come before the FFP window resets on 30 June, they will effectively contribute to Mauricio Pochettino‘s transfer budget this summer.
The sale will also be important in terms of Chelsea’s FFP status under UEFA, whose system is stricter than the Premier League’s.
Chelsea will play in Europe next season after finishing 6th in what has been a turbulent season for the West London club, and they will therefore be subject to both the Premier League and UEFA’s rules.