How many MG cars is Chelsea Football club worth? The football club is worth billions of dollars and will give instant fame to anyone that buys it
By Abdullah Niazi
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n the 2nd of March, the Khaleej Times reported that Pakistani businessman and owner of Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Peshawar Zalmi, Javed Afridi, was in the running to buy Chelsea, one of the biggest football clubs in the world. The club, which is up for sale by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich who is selling the club because of pressure on him in the face of the Ukraine crisis, has in the past been valued at $3.2 billion and is expected to sell at a price upwards of $4 billion. To put that into perspective, in 2015 Javed Afridi bought Peshawar Zalmi for $1.2 million. That would mean that Afridi would be able to buy 3333 more PSL teams in the price that it would take for him to buy all of Chelsea Football Club. And if Afridi was to invest the $1.2 million that he spent on Peshawar Zalmi to put money in a consortium buying the Chelsea Football Club, it would give him exactly a 0.03% stake in the team. To further put this into perspective, the current owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, has a personal net worth of around $13 billion. In comparison, Pakistani origins businessman Shahid
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Khan (reportedly the richest ‘Pakistani origins’ has a net worth of $8.6 billion, and when he bought the NFL team Jaguars in 2011, he spent $770 million on it - the team is now worth $2.33 billion and the 23rd most expensive team in the NFL. That means to buy Chelsea, Shahid Khan would have to sell the Jacksonville Jaguars and would still only have just over half the amount needed to buy the team. This makes the news that Afridi is in the running to buy the club a little suspect. According to the 2020 audited financials for Haier Pakistan, which is owned by Afridi, the assets of the company are worth over Rs 56 billion, which is equivalent to around $313 million. Meanwhile in 2015, Afridi bought the Peshawar Zalmi team for $12 million, which is to be paid in 10 equal instalments over 10 years. Even if Afridi were able to sell both of these and funnel the money into the club, he would not be able to acquire even 10% of the Chelsea Football franchise. According to the report of the Khaleej Times, “Afridi’s team held a meeting on Wednesday with a sports and legal agency in the UK. According to a source quoted by KT, a number of investors are interested in the project and there has been some conversation that someone from Asia should come in and put money in the team.” Even here Afridi’s team has simply held meetings and made inquiries at most, and he himself has mentioned nothing in the public sphere in terms of his desire to buy the team. On top of that, even if he were to sell everything and become part of a consortium wanting to buy the club, the problem is that sports franchises are not profit making enterprises and are not meant to be. These teams are normally vanity assets for the uber-rich who pour money into these sides without making profits to connect with the sports that they love. Being the owner of such teams is also a way to gain an international profile because of the reach and interest that sports teams have. Any such investment from a Pakistani businessman would not
only be a huge purchase, it would also result in a massive rise in international status. According to another report, Abramovich has already declined an offer upwards of $3.4 billion for the club. The likelihood of Afridi buying the club is a near impossibility. What is worth looking at, however, is how the business of sports franchises work, and why people are willing to spend such big money on projects that are not meant to be profitable, as well as what would happen if some Pakistani billionaire ever did have to buy a club like Chelsea.
What is Chelsea worth and how much will it go for?
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longstanding part of the English Premier League, Chelsea has been around since 1905 and has won 5 Premier League and 2 UEFA Champions League titles in its more than 100 year long history. According to Forbes, the football club is worth a whopping $3.2 billion, with a gross annual revenue of $520 million - which mostly comes from sponsorships and tournament revenue pools. In the past two years, with the club Chelsea winning the UEFA Champions Trophy in 2021, the club’s value has risen by a massive 24%. According to initial reports, the club will likely go for a price tag above $4 billion. The club was listed on the London Stock Exchange back in 1996, and the current owner bought just over 85% of the club in 2003 and took control. Buying the club, however, will not necessarily be a matter of making money as sports teams are rarely a profitable business and are usually a passion project for the ultra-rich that enjoy both the opportunity to be involved in the game of their choice and the fame (or in some cases infamy) that comes with the territory. “Most teams operate at a net loss. Most of the revenue generated by the team is paid out to the players in the form of salary, and the rest is used to cover the operating expenses of the business,” says Jeff Farmer, a sports executive based in the
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