The Club World Cup has plenty of detractors, but the competition has been as lucrative as it has been successful for Chelsea.
The Blues booked their place in Sunday’s final against Paris Saint-Germain by beating Fluminense 2-0 in New Jersey, with new £60m forward Joao Pedro spectacularly scoring both goals against his former club.
Enzo Maresca will be pleased that his squad have maintained their momentum from the back end of the regular season, when they qualified for the Champions League and won the Conference League to complete their European set.
Owners BlueCo will be equally satisfied with how things have gone stateside, with the club taking a sizeable chunk out of Fifa’s $1bn (£738m) prize-money pie.
How much have Chelsea earned from the Club World Cup?
The simple answer is a lot. A definitive answer is harder to gauge, largely because Chelsea’s participation fee is unknown.
“There aren’t any definitive figures coming out from Fifa, apart from broadly the $1bn to be shared, which is a nice number to be quoted,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire tells The i Paper.
What is known is that European clubs were paid between $12.81m and $38.19m (roughly £9.46m and £28.19m) for turning up, and that Chelsea are at the top end of that bracket as one of the four most recent Champions League winners.
Fifa also disclosed their prize money for each round, which works out at roughly: £1.5m for a group-stage win and £5.5m for reaching the last 16; £9.7m for progressing to the quarter-final; £15.5m for getting to the semis; £22.2m for the runners-up and £29.5m for the winner.
Chelsea have won five of their six matches (losing the other to Flamengo), including all three knockout games, meaning they have already earned around £33.7m.
If they beat PSG, that will almost double to roughly £63.2m, and if they lose, they will still collect around £55.8m in prize money alone.
“I think Chelsea are probably around £70m at present, and if they win it, it will go closer to £90m. So it’s a very good position to be in for seven games,” Maguire says.
What does it mean for PSR?
Chelsea are in a strong profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) position after announcing a pre-tax profit of £128.4m in their 2023-24 accounts up to 30 June 2024.
A big factor behind Chelsea being PSR compliant over the last couple of accounting cycles has been the sale of their women’s team, as well as hotels and associated car parks at Stamford Bridge, to subsidiary companies of BlueCo.
Their flair for creative accounting will probably continue, with the Premier League confirming last month that clubs will not be penalised for selling assets to associated parties.
However, growing revenue through strong performance at major tournaments is a more conventional and hassle-free way of boosting the bottom line.
“It’s bonus money,” Maguire says of their Club World Cup takings. “Qualifying was good – and the progress they have made has enhanced that further.”
56' JOÃO PEDRO HAS DONE IT AGAIN!
— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) July 8, 2025
A brace in his first @ChelseaFC start, two absolute bangers. The Brazilian wonderkid is making serious noise.
Watch the @FIFACWC | June 14 – July 13 | Every Game | Free | https://t.co/i0K4eUtwwb | #FIFACWC #TakeItToTheWorld #FLUCHE pic.twitter.com/ornUPa0dUe
…and appeasing Uefa?
Getting in Uefa’s good books is more challenging.
Last week, Chelsea were hit with a big fine of around €31m (£27m), potentially rising to €91m (£79m) for breaching Uefa’s earnings rules and failing their cost-control ratio regulations.
Uefa’s rules are more stringent. Chelsea’s sale of their women’s team, for example, is not permitted.
Earning prize money from competitions is, therefore, more valuable to Chelsea when towing the Uefa line.
“I think the challenge for Chelsea is being compliant with Uefa’s squad cost rules, which are actually far more draconian than people are seeing,” Maguire says.
“This is fantastic [for Chelsea]. Effectively, for every £10m they get, £7m goes back into their wage and amortisation budget. So it is significantly beneficial.
“I think the broader challenge is that they’ve got to break even in terms of players coming and going.
“But Chelsea are light years ahead of every other Premier League club when it comes to player sales.”
Has the CWC already paid for Pedro and Delap?
A phrase you will have heard from pundits and commentators or seen on social media during the Club World Cup is: “X player has already paid back their transfer fee.”
Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Esperance sealed their place in the last 16 with £30m striker Liam Delap scoring the second goal.
Chelsea banked approximately £7m from that game – almost a quarter of Delap’s transfer fee.
In the semi-final, Pedro won the game for Chelsea with both goals. The club stand to earn either £22.2m or £29.5m from the final, which works out at around two-fifths or half of the £60m that they paid Brighton for the Brazilian forward.
But is it that simple?
“It’s a bit nuanced than that, because the costs are spread over the life of the contract,” Maguire says.
“Joao Pedro cost £60m, which works out at £12m per year and £1m per month. So it pays a couple of years of his amortisation fee, rather than the fee itself.”
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What does it mean for new signings?
Chelsea have already spent around £140m on Pedro, Delap and Jamie Gittens since the transfer window opened, and finalised previously agreed deals for others, including Willian Estevao, Dario Essugo and Mamadou Sarr.
The club have more than 50 senior professionals on their books, and while there are bound to be some outgoings, more incomings are guaranteed based on BlueCo’s previous summer expenditure.
“They knew that they qualified [for the Club World Cup] some time ago, so they would have budgeted to get X number of wins,” Maguire says.
“They have probably exceeded expectations. It would have been folly to budget to win it. So yes, there are additional funds as far as the overall budget is concerned.”
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