What Chelsea Club World Cup success means for PSR as Todd Boehly has last laugh

While this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup, being played out in the baking hot United States sunshine, may have had its fair share of controversy, for Chelsea it is allowing them to plot a path to future success.

A perceived lack of interest from the US public in watching so many games in cavernous stadiums featuring many clubs who they aren’t familiar with has resulted in lower than desired ticket sales, and the additional workload on players ahead of pre-season and on the back of a gruelling campaign into another one, has drawn plenty of criticism.

Some have been vocal about it, but for managers whose teams have benefited from the riches on offer, with a $1bn prize pot put up by FIFA after it secured a broadcasting deal with DAZN earlier in the year, the tone has been far more conciliatory when it comes to the Club World Cup.

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“The owners just want the best for us and for the players game by game, and they are not talking about the final prize or the final reward in terms of money," Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said before playing ES Tunis last month. "They never put pressure on me or the players in terms of we need to win this tournament because of the money."

That may be true, but for a club that has had to sell hotels and its women's team to itself to create paper profits to be able to fly under the threshold when it comes to the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) the potentially game-changing nature of success in the competition from the outset is clear. While no pressure may have been placed, Chelsea have taken this competition seriously and, with a semi-final to play on Tuesday evening against Brazilian side Fluminense, have the ultimate prize pot still in their sights.

To put the Club World Cup riches for the biggest teams in Europe into some context, for a club with a big TV market pool that had success in the group stages and managed to get all the way to the final and lift the trophy, $125m (£92m) was as good as it gets. That is only £20m or so less than what a club would get for a flawless UEFA Champions League campaign that ended in victory. With Chelsea’s lack of Champions League football in recent seasons, something which they put right last season to give them reasons to be cheerful for 2025/26, they almost have the chance to book two seasons' worth of Champions League level income in one financial year. For Chelsea, that is huge.

There is £21.9m on the line in New York on Tuesday night when Chelsea face Fluminense. A win would book a final spot and to be successful there earns another £29.5m. That means that Chelsea, will take their total earnings for the competition, including their participation fee, close to the £100m mark. That is the kind of sum that could be expected on a run to the last four of the Champions League.

In terms of Chelsea and PSR it is impactful. The sale of the women’s team in the 2023/24 accounts at a near £200m valuation saw the Blues post a profit of £128m after losses of £121m (2021/22) and £90m (2022/23) in the previous two seasons before that.

With a limit of £105m in losses minus allowable deductions, Chelsea would have been in breach were it not for the sale.

Chelsea’s 2024/25 financial year recently came to an end, and while there may be a loss to be expected with not major tangible asset sales in the accounting period, the fact that the £121m loss drops off the three-year cycle means that they have little to be concerned about.

With the club now in the 2025/26 financial year, that means the three-year cycle at present doesn’t include the £90m loss either, meaning that the £128m profit, and whatever happened in 2024/25, and what is to come in 2025/26, is what will be assessed.

For Chelsea, banking close on £100m in a financial year when they are returning to Champions League football, which even conservatively will be worth upwards of £65m, means that the club have created a lot of breathing space and essentially banished their PSR concerns, with the focus likely to focus more on driving down their position when it comes to UEFA’s squad cost ratio regulations, which the club have agreed to reduce over the next two seasons after being hit with a fine by European football’s governing body for a breach.

The big revenue influx provides the club with the chance to cash flow the business more efficiently with regards to the hefty transfer debt that exists on the balance sheet, which at £498m was the biggest in the Premier League for 2023/24, some £150m more than second-largest Tottenham Hotspur.

Moving on big-earning fringe players will be at the forefront of the minds of owners, but they have given themselves the flexibility to not rely solely on player trading to make the model work.

For the club, 2025/26 is already looking like it will be the season when the Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital plan, which has been met with much derision, might actually start to pay off, and participation in what many have seen as something of a needless sideshow of a competition in the Club World Cup, may well end up being manna from heaven.