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📣 Chelsea’s financial statements will start appearing over the next few weeks. They will come out in this order:
-> Chelsea FC Holdings Limited
-> Blueco 22 Limited
-> 22 Holdco Limited
That order reflects the ownership structure from the ground up. Each set of accounts sits at a different level of the structure, and each one shows a different part of the financial picture. Be wary that the first set of accounts will not provide the complete picture. This is where they exploit fan confusion from creating fake profits, like last year’s sale of the Women’s team.
The first release is Chelsea FC Holdings Limited, which owns Chelsea Football Club Limited. This is the club that sits at the foundation of the asset structure. It signs the players, records transfer amortization, pays wages, and generates the matchday, broadcast, and commercial revenue. It DOES NOT include interest on the debt, Strasbourg or CFCW.
Blueco 22 Limited is typically released a few weeks later. This entity carries the senior bank loans arranged with JPMorgan and Bank of America, but the equity for this vehicle was funded by the loans from Ares Management. According to the latest filings, the JPM/BOA facilities total £755.2 million and mature on 13 July 2027. That date is Blueco’s first refinancing hurdle, and with the turmoil in PE markets you need to watch that space.
Above that sits 22 Holdco Limited. That company contains the longer-dated financing associated with the Ares Management subordinated debt facility. The 2024 accounts show £410.2 million outstanding but the amount has been reported to have grown to £527m. Like the loans Ares provided to John Textor, this facility is structured as a PIK loan that compounds rather than paying principal and interest. It has a maturity date of 22 August 2033 and is expected to be repaid from sale of the club.
The accounts also describe how the lenders are secured. The security package includes shares in the club holding companies, bank accounts, intercompany receivables, and a floating charge over the group’s assets. In other words, the lenders are secured across the ownership structure itself. Every asset in the diagram below is available for repossession. Therefore when someone says the debt is not on the club, ask them what happens to the collateral held by these banks in a foreclosure.
To summarize, the football club sits at the bottom generating the cash flows. The loans that have funded the squad build and operating losses sit above it in the holding companies. Clearlake and Boehly Group sit above all that leverage, and there’s no doubt leverage in the £1.6b provided by Clearlake’s institutional investors.
When credit is structured like this, the lenders are not relying only on the club’s operating profits. They are underwriting the value of the entire ownership and club structure, including refinancing as the debt matures. The only way they pay back all that they borrowed is sale of the club, which by my estimate requires a 2033 sale of at least £7b for Boehly to breakeven.
That is why three timelines are going to be important:
❎ The senior bank facilities mature on 13 July 2027.
❎ Per the 22 Holdco Articles of Association, the shareholder lock-up runs for a decade from the 2022 takeover.
❎ The Ares facility matures on 22 August 2033. This is the date that determines who will be the new owners of CFC LDN. Smart money will probably say that is going to be Ares.
So when the accounts start appearing, ignore the PR and focus on the numbers in 22 Holdco. That is the entity that will give the most complete picture of the financing structure and, most importantly, the interest on the debt and operating costs of Strasbourg.
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