How Chelsea are navigating around PSR restrictions with the Women’s Team
PSR restrictions have been nothing new to Chelsea since the takeover by BlueCo, and he ownership group has used several ways to get around them.
From almost the very start of their ownership, it was clear they would bring a private equity approach — where rules are often bent or pushed to their limits — to football regulation.
Chelsea were signing players to extremely long-term contracts, using that as a way for Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and their accountants to spread transfer fees over six, seven or even eight years, lowering the short-term impact of high-spending deals. That was before the Premier League and UEFA shut down that loophole.
At one point, Chelsea’s owners even sold club assets back to themselves. The sale of two hotels at Stamford Bridge and the women’s team from one part of the ownership structure to another helped add hundreds of millions in artificial profit to their accounts.
This was a big reason why they haven’t faced PSR sanctions in England. But under UEFA’s rules, they’ve been less fortunate. A summer settlement now means they’ll need a positive player trading balance after this season, something they still haven’t managed despite all their squad turnover.
The women’s team plays into this strategy too. The owners not only use them as an accounting tool but also believe they could be central to BlueCo’s long-term financial vision for the club.
Kieran Maguire questions BlueCo’s valuation of Chelsea women following Deloitte report
Deloitte published its annual Football Money League this week, ranking clubs by revenue across the men’s and women’s games.
Chelsea Women, who won their sixth straight WSL title as part of a domestic double last season, finished second to Arsenal in the women’s rankings. Their revenue jumped 90 per cent from 2025 figures to £21.3m.
In the overall standings, Chelsea ranked 10th, bringing in £508m in revenue.
Valuations often start with a multiple of club revenue. When BlueCo purchased Chelsea in 2022 for £2.5bn, that reflected about five times the club’s earnings at the time.
However, when BlueCo transferred ownership of the women’s team within its own structure last year, they set a price of £199m – around 17 times that season’s earnings for the side.
The deal leaned on a minority investment from Alexis Ohanian as justification to pass Fair Market Value review by the Premier League panel tasked with vetting transactions for artificial inflation.
With Deloitte now reporting the women’s side pulled in just under 10 times that figure based on recent turnover figures.
Plenty questioned whether it was fair value at first. But others have noted that growth projections remain high for women compared to more established markets like men so there may be room for those multiples to grow over time.
Maguire told The Chelsea Chronicle, “I still find that valuation difficult to justify.”
“You look at where Chelsea are playing and how many people they are playing in front of and the business model looks very reliant on success in European competition. That’s what delivers international broadcasting revenues,” he added further speaking exclusively to The Chelsea Chronicle.
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