The publication of Chelsea's accounts for the 2023/24 period on Monday raised plenty of eyebrows.

As a club that had been tipped to face a battle to be compliant with the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules (PSR), ended up posting a £128.4million pre-tax profit for the financial year, despite an underlying loss of £70million for the period.

In the face of a decline in turnover year on year, down to £468.5million from the previous year's £512.5million, - an increase of some £218.5million.

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Chelsea's vastly improved financial performance for the period was aided by some profit on the sale of players but, perhaps more crucially, the 'repositioning' of the club's women's team, which in May of 2024 saw them sold to another part of Chelsea owner's BlueCo22's portfolio, essentially selling the business to themselves to realise paper profits.

Such a move was entirely within the rules and regulations of the Premier League - despite the eyebrows raised - while the valuation of Chelsea Women as an asset has been a point of some focus.

A filing on Companies House on June 28 last year, two days before the end of the Chelsea men's team's financial year, , with Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital's BlueCo22 Midco Limited vehicle taking over in a move that separates from the men's team.

The changing ownership structure has a number of benefits - with Boehly and Clearlake having wanted to move the women's team into a standalone business model at a time when women's football is booming globally and the valuations of teams in North American women's 'soccer' have risen exponentially in recent seasons.

In changing ownership to BlueCo22 Midco, the move is a pre-cursor to the women's team seeking investment and attempting to lead the charge in the English women's game when it comes to growth, aiming to follow the success of the NWSL in the US.

Acquiring the club from Chelsea FC Holdings will have, on the face of it, aided Chelsea's bid to be PSR compliant, with the Chelsea FC Holdings company able to book profit from the sale of the women's team to the Midco.

A similar related-party transaction was done in the 2022/23 financial year - with their sale of The Hotel at Chelsea Limited to BlueCo22 Properties Limited. Both the hotel transaction and the sale of the women's team to Blueco22 Midco will have to be assessed by the Premier League as to whether or not they are within the regulation when it comes to associated party transactions (APT).

Chelsea owners BlueCo have been open in their desire to sell an equity stake in the women's team to raise funds, with some valuations being as high as £150million for the team. Given what has transpired in the accounts, it seems as if they have got close to, if not more than, what they felt the value of the club was.

A club statement accompanying the publication of the results, which have still to land in their full, audited entirety on Companies House at the time of writing, read: "Decreased operating expenses, including matchday and non-matchday costs, profits on disposal of player registrations of £152.5million and a profit on disposal of subsidiaries of £198.7million, led to the group recording an overall net profit of £129.6million after tax."

It is not yet known how much of that £198.7million was in profit on the disposal of subsidiaries was attached to Chelsea Women. Should that figure account for the whole if it then the value of the team would be more than that of Bournemouth and Brentford, according to Sportico's most recent Premier League valuations. It would also represent a multiple of revenue, which is the way many investors value sports teams, of more than 17. For context, Michelle Kang's acquisition of OL Feminin, purchasing it out of the men's Olympique Lyonnais structure, was done so at a multiple of revenue of 10x, something that was seen as the high watermark at the time in 2023.

In the NWSL, the highest level of professional women's football in America, valuations of teams have been on a sharp incline, with team sales having risen from the $35million paid for the Washington Spirit by Kang in 2022, to the $113million paid for the San Diego Wave last year. Angel City FC - the NWSL's most globally recognised team - was sold last year for $250million.