At the start of the calendar year, Chelsea reported a PS90m loss for the fiscal year ending June 2023, which was just within bounds of the limits allowed by the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).

The loss wasn't surprising; in fact, many had wondered how we managed to avoid an even bigger loss given our record spending that season.

When the full accounts were published in April, they revealed that one big reason we did avoid it was the "sale" of the Chelsea Hotel complex that's attached to the stadium (thanks, Ken Bates) from one BlueCo entity (i.

e.

the football club) to another.

This was a "sale" purely in an accounting sense; the hotel stayed within BlueCo, just moved from one subsidiary to another.

The club deemed this transaction to be worth PS76.

3m, which we recorded as a bit of Pure Profit on the football club's accounts (which are the ones that have to pass PSR muster).

The club's accounts claimed that this valuation was determined via third-party consultation (using two different outside firms that specialize in such things, even) but obviously it would have to stand up to the league's auditors as well.

Doomful prognosticators prognosticated gleefully that surely we can't get away with yet another loophole.

.

.

but according to ESPN this week, we have in fact gotten away with it.

Or, to put it more accurately, the Premier League have "cleared" the transaction, which would imply that they agree with the valuation we used.

The trickier part here of course is that financial fair play calculations for UEFA do not include such transactions by rule.

So we'll see how we manage to fiddle the books for them - or how we manage to avoid serious penalties.

Exclusive: Premier League clears Chelsea's PS76.

5m sale of two hotels to a sister company in a deal which aids their compliance with PSR.

Sale was being assessed for "fair market value" but that process has now concluded.

Story: https://t.

co/LYtRfQohO9- James Olley (@JamesOlley) September 4, 2024.