HOW THE BRIDGE HAS FALLEN

CONDITIONS OF CHELSEA’S SPECIAL LICENCE ISSUED BY THE GOVERNMENT

Government will allow the sale of the club, subject to certain conditions being met.

Club shop closed, no more match tickets can be sold. Fans who bought season tickets or individual match tickets before March 10, 2022 can attend games. Club can fulfil fixtures and pay wages of employees. No new player sales or purchases, and discussions on new deals for out-of-contract players put on hold.

They can pay “reasonable” costs of travel to and from fixtures but not exceeding £20,000 per game per team – though Government are ready to increase that if they progress in Champions League.

Pay “reasonable” costs towards hosting home fixtures, not exceeding £900,000 per game per team.

Broadcasters can still broadcast any fixture involving the club.

Club can utilise payments due from broadcasting companies, and any prize money earned, to meet its outgoings. That should see the £28million monthly wage bill covered for the final three months of the campaign.

COMMERCIAL ISSUES

Chelsea’s shirt sponsor, Three, has suspended its £40m deal as have Hyundai. Training kit sponsors Trivago announced on Friday they would stand by the club, while kit suppliers Nike are also expected to stay – but Zapp are considering walking away. Children’s charity Plan International have brought forward the end of their partnership by two months.

REVENUE STREAMS

The club can still receive broadcast revenue and prize money from organisations such as the Premier League or UEFA.

That was worth a total of £273.61m to the club last season, making it Chelsea’s largest revenue stream. By contrast, the club earned £153.6m through commercial income, and just £7.65m from matchdays, which was down £54.47m in 2019/20 due to games being played behind closed doors.

Even in non-Covid years, broadcast revenue has long been the club’s main source of regular income, making up an average of 44 percent of annual revenue between 2009/10 and 2019/20.

Not selling any more match tickets will come as a blow to the club’s finances, but they have been increasingly less dependent on matchday income over the last 15 years.

Back in 2007/08, the three main streams of income – broadcast, commercial and matchday – each made up around a third of the club’s income. But while broadcast and commercial incomes have soared since that time, matchday income at Stamford Bridge has remained largely the same. It means that by 2019/20, matchday income made up just 13 percent of Chelsea’s overall revenue.

The club’s wage bill stood at £332.91m in 2020/21, the latest season for which figures are available. Manchester City are the only English club who paid their players more (£354.69m).

The club has paid out a total of £3.51billion in wages since Abramovich took over in 2003/04. Chelsea spent £115.57m on wages in his first season, meaning wages have almost tripled since then.

PLAYERS WHOSE DEALS EXPIRE IN JUNE

Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen, Emerson Palmieri, Danny Drinkwater, Baba Rahman, Matt Miazga, Jake Clarke-Salter and Charly Musonda.