Chelsea pay over $33 million to former managers

Chelsea paid 23.1 million pounds ($33.38 million) in compensation to former managers Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant along with five of their coaching staff, the Premier League club said on Friday.

The club released its results on Friday which showed reduced losses of 65.7 million pounds for the year ending June 2008. The club reported losses of 74.8 million in the previous year.

"The results include exceptional items of 23.1 million pounds related to compensation payments to two first team managers and five coaching staff," the report on the club's website (www.chelseafc.com) said.

The figure does not include the compensation due to Luiz Felipe Scolari [Images], who was sacked on Monday after only seven months in charge after replacing Grant.

Russia [Images] national coach Guus Hiddink will take over next week as Chelsea manager until the end of the season.

The club also said that half of its interest-free loans have been converted into shares, underlining Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's attachment to Stanford Bridge.

"There should be no doubt as to the owner's commitment to the club and the stability of company's funding structure," Chelsea chairmen Bruce Buck said in a statement.

Buck also defused any doubts over the scale of the club's debt exposure, saying that it "has been misrepresented. Chelsea has no external debt."

Since Abramovich's multimillion takeover in 2003, Chelsea have won two Premier League titles, one FA Cup and two League Cups.

The group's turnover, which increased by 11.9 percent to 213.1 million pounds, was boosted from finishing runners-up to Manchester United [Images] in both the Premier League and the UEFA [Images] Champions League last season.

Wages and salaries went up to 148.5 million pounds from 132.8 million, according to the results.

The club aims to fund any squad restructuring in the off season by selling players.

"We have consistently reduced our net transfer spend over the last five years and will attempt to continue this trend," said Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon.

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