Chelsea chiefs hand themselves an 80 per cent pay rise as club suffers record losses

Blues executives took home nearly 80 per cent more than the previous year and directors enjoyed a hike of almost 60 per cent – while other staff, including players, were paid only six per cent more.

But Chelsea’s loss of £262.4m contributed to owners BlueCo losing £619m overall last season, which took their total deficit since their 2022 takeover to nearly £1.7billion.

The newly-released accounts of Chelsea FC Holdings Limited, the immediate parent company of the football club, reveal “key management personnel” received a total of £10,593,000 in the 2024-5 campaign – a massive leap from £5,893,000 the previous season.

Those personnel included the “executive leadership of the Group”, such as commercial chief Todd Kline and chief revenue officer Casper Stylsvig, who left the club last summer amid rows over the failure to find a long-term front-of-shirt sponsor.

Chelsea were unable to confirm whether co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, along with fellow football bosses Sam Jewell and Joe Shields, also benefited from the pay bonanza.

eanwhile Chelsea FC Holdings directors were paid £3,486,000 last season, up from £2,183,000.

The highest-paid board member – believed to be club president Jason Gannon – received £2,105,000, an increase of just under 25 per cent on the previous year.

Meanwhile the wage bill for other staff – most of it relating to players – went up by only just over six per cent, to £312,812,000.

It is understood the big executive rises are partly down to an increase in the number of executive personnel.

The 2024-5 campaign was the most successful since the new regime led by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly bought Chelsea from Roman Abramovich for £2.5billion in 2022.

Under Enzo Maresca, the Blues won the Conference League, qualified for the Champions League and went on to lift the Club World Cup just into their new financial year.

Chelsea are predicting they will have record revenues of nearly £700m this season as a result of last year’s progress.

But the current problems on the field mean news of the big pay hikes for Stamford Bridge chiefs will not go down well.

Especially with Blues fans and Strasbourg supporters uniting for a protest march on Saturday ahead of the crucial Premier League clash against Manchester United.

Source: THE SUN