Chelsea's auditors confident in club's finances

Bruce Buck, chairman of English Chelsea, along with the club auditors, KPMG, are confident of the club's financial security even after doubts were raised on whether it could achieve its target of requiring no external funding by 2010.

''The finances of the owner Roman Abramovich have been investigated by the Chelsea board and auditors in order to verify that his commitment to the club is for the long term," said Buck.

"In signing the accounts, both the board and our accountants have to make investigations and take a view that the funding for Chelsea, in the reasonable future, is secure.

"I can assure you that the board made its investigations and the accountants also. We did what we had to do and we are satisfied with the financial security of Chelsea going forward."

Peter Kenyon, Chelsea's chief executive, is still optimistic even after the club announced it suffered a loss of GBP 80 million for the year ending June 2006, saying that the loss is GBP 60 million less than in 2004-05.

He is confident that the club is heading in the right direction financially after several years of exorbitant spending under Roman Abramovich's cash-rich administration.

Kenyon is so confident that the club will achieve its goal that he put a freeze on ticket prices for next season.

"I think in terms of pricing we are top end," Kenyon told Sky Sports News.

"We're not making any excuses because that's where we are, but I think what we have done is listen to the supporters and looked at the number of games we are playing in every competition.

"At the end of the day we want to continue to have full stadia. That is critical to our supporters and to our team.

"When in cup matches, there was such a successful outcome from reducing the prices, it meant we got more families coming in and more new fans going forward.

"What we've done this season I think is very positive."

With no proceeds from ticket sales, success on the field will become even more vital.

"I think basically success on the field means money from competitions. Television money is important as are sponsorship revenues," he added.

"Whilst we've frozen ticket prices, the amount of revenue we're getting is very significant.

"The reality is we started this project saying we want to develop a successful and sustainable football team and to do that you have to spend. We see that as an investment."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.