Soccer Noise – For Soccer Fanatics

It has been a very hectic year for Chelsea and the change in ownership has seen their finances scrutinised more than ever. In all of this mess, some big figures have been thrown around on Chelsea’s debt. How much is Chelsea owing debt? Chelsea’s exact debt figure is difficult to calculate but it is thought to be around $800 million even after Todd Boehly purchased the club for around £4.2 billion. When Chelsea were about to be sold there was a big issue with the debt that the club had to Russian owner Roman Abramovich. The issue was that after initial thoughts that Abramovich would forgive this debt, this turned out not to be the case after the Russians' assets were frozen by the UK government. Thankfully for Chelsea fans, Boehly was able to come to a legal solution to this issue and the successful purchase of the team went through. Boehly purchased Chelsea for around £4.2 billion and around £1.75 billion of this to be invested into the club and its players’ facilities and stadium. Boehly could not find all of this on his own and so Chelsea’s new owners raised over £800 million of debt in order to overhaul the operations of the club. This is part of the financial plan that Boehly is putting into place to overhaul the team and its operations. There have been a few more details that have come out about this debt. It is thought that around £300 million of that debt will be revolving credit facility and the remaining £500 million will be through a loan. As Boehly is American it is hardly surprising that the Bank of America and JPMorgan are the ones financing the loan. This is one of the biggest single creations of debt in the history of football. Boehly has to be very careful with the debt that he raises as there is a limit on the amount of debt the club can raise as this was included in the terms of the sale. The terms of the sale are not completely known and we don’t know how much debt Chelsea still have after the sale to Boehly. What we know at the moment is only the debt from the American banks. But there is a good chance the debt bill is higher than that as before the sale Chelsea had an aggregate debt of $1.89 billion with most of this being in the form of loans from previous owner Roman Abramovich. How much are Chelsea FC worth? The exact value of Chelsea is difficult to determine as there are lots of factors involved. These include the players and facilities that the team has as well as a very valuable asset in Stamford Bridge. There are other things that are included in the calculations that are a little bit more difficult to calculate like brand image and merchandising. Forbes estimates that in 2022 Chelsea are worth around $3.1 billion. While this figure may be accurate, some might claim that the figure is higher than that. That is due to the fact that Todd Boehly paid $4.2 billion for the team earlier this year. Other estimates tend to be pretty similar with some estimates saying that the club is worth around $3.2 billion. Football Clubs with the most debt You might not realise that football clubs are in a lot of debt. This debt is usually needed to deal with the massive expenses involved in running a football club. 5. Inter Milan -£757 Million Italian clubs feature on this list a few times, with the estimate of the debt being around £757 million. Italian teams in particular seemed to really struggle with the impacts of Covid-19 and it has meant that Inter Milan is not in a very good position financially. It has not helped that they rarely promote young players, instead signing older players which is more costly. Inter suffered losses of around £170 million in 2021 and it caused the team to have to sell some of their crucial players like Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi. Despite this, Inter is still looking to acquire more debt in order to cover its losses. 4. Manchester United- £771 Million If you were wondering why Manchester United fans are desperate for the Glazer family to sell the club is because of the massive debts that they have put United into after buying the team. Manchester United were relatively debt free before the Glazer’s purchased the team and they were immediately put into debt. This debt is being worsened by the teams' poor form over the last decade as they often do not have the extra income from winning trophies or playing in the Champions League. 3.Atletico Madrid- £804 Million Atletico Madrid were one of many clubs that were already in pretty bad debt before the pandemic hit. They were already in almost £1 billion worth of debt and had significant losses in the 2020-21 season. Despite this, they are on the right track. Atletico have recently paid off over £200 million of debt but are still a long way from being debt free. 2-Barcelona- £1 Billion Considering how poorly run Barcelona are, it is hardly surprising to see them on this list. The club has made some terrible decisions in the transfer market with the £100 million plus signings of Ousmane Dembele and Phillipe Coutinho. This poor management has not led to any real success. This lack of success has meant the club has to continually take loans and the club's awful wage structure is a big problem for the team. 1. Tottenham- £1.2 Billion While it may concern Spurs fans that they are top of this list it is not really that surprising. Tottenham put a huge amount of money into building a brand new stadium that looks like one of the best in the country. The development of the stadium came at the same time as the Covid-19 pandemic so they have a huge amount of debt. The new stadium should help to pay this off so I wouldn’t worry too much about the debt if you’re a Tottenham fan.

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