Premier League yet to rule on Chelsea women's team 'fair market value' sale

The Premier League has yet to approve the sale of Chelsea's women's team to the club's parent company BlueCo through their 'fair market value' rules.

Chelsea reported a pre-tax profit of £128.4m on Monday but they effectively sold the women's team and potentially other subsidiaries to themselves for around £198.7m.

The league didn't bring any Profit and Sustainability (PSR) rule charges against Chelsea when assessing its members in January.

However, as first reported in the Times, external, it has also not yet approved the value of the sale of Chelsea Women.

The worth of the Women's Super League champions is understood to have been benchmarked against the world's most valuable women's team, Angel City, a club in the US-based National Women's Soccer League which was sold for £190m in September.

Chelsea's valuation was made when seeking external investment and sponsorship in June 2024, when they announced the "repositioning" of the women's team into a separate entity from the men's team.

But although Chelsea continue to insist the move will benefit their women's team, it has also helped balance the spending of more than £1.5bn in transfers over three years on the men's side, avoiding huge losses.

The club also sold two hotels to another sister company to keep them compliant with PSR rules last season, which was deemed fair market value by the league at £76.5m.

The current Premier League financial rules do not address associated party transactions (APTs), after clubs were unable to close the loophole following its annual general meeting in June.

However, European football's governing body Uefa has more stringent Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules which would discount APTs of all its members, with the sale of the hotels and the Chelsea women's team to be assessed in the summer.