If you ever wondered how much it cost Chelsea in severance packages when Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant (and don’t forget their staff as well) were fired, now you have the opportunity as Chelsea have announced a 65.7 Million Pound loss for the business year ending June 30, 2008.

Via Guardian

While the latest figure does not account for compensation paid to Luiz Felipe Scolari, who was sacked as manager earlier this week, the loss is lower than last year’s figure of £74.8m, which was in turn an improvement on the £80.2m deficit announced the previous year. The club declared record losses of £140m in 2004-05.

The London club, owned by the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, increased group turnover by 11.9% to £213.1m from £190.5m in 2006-07.

Chelsea’s chief executive Peter Kenyon said: “There is no doubt that the positive upward trends of turnover and the continued reduction in losses show that Chelsea is building a strong business base to build on in what will be challenging times.

“This is even more evident given that the results were adversely affected by the exceptional items.”

A report today by the BBC claims that Abramovich’s investment in the club since 2003 has reached £710m, although Kenyon insists the club still hopes to become “self-sufficient” within the next 18 months.

“We have set ourselves ambitious targets to be Ebitda-neutral [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation neutral] on 30 June, 2010 and to require zero cash funding from the owner at the beginning of the financial year 2009-2010,” said Kenyon.

Today’s figures also revealed that wages, excluding compensation payments, were up to £148.5m from £132.8m in 2006–7.

Image via EuroTicket