Chelsea have paid out more than £26million over the sacking of former coach Antonio Conte.
The Premier League club’s latest accounts show they paid a total of £26.6m in compensation to Inter Milan manager Conte and his backroom staff and legal costs.
Antonio Conte was sacked by Chelsea in July 2018 after two years in charge of the club, and was later replaced by Maurizio Sarri.
Conte delivered on his remit in London, with a Premier League title triumph in his debut season followed by an FA Cup victory in his second.
Antonio Conte had 12 months left to run on his deal when being unceremoniously dumped.
The decision was taken to head in a different direction as they finished only fifth in the 2017-18 campaign and missed out on qualification for the Champions League.
Sarri would counter that disappointment by overseeing a victorious Europa League campaign, but spent only one year at Stamford Bridge.
His exit was agreed by mutual consent, but that was not the case with Conte and – after a legal dispute – the full cost of parting with the 50-year-old manager has now been made public.
Chelsea’s latest accounts have been released, with compensation packages for a former blues manager and his backroom team included in it.
Chelsea said in the reveal of their figures for the year ending June 30, 2019: “Exceptional items in the current year of £26.6million relate to changes in respect of the men’s team management and coaching staff, together with associated legal costs.”
Chelsea have also revealed that their wage bill through to the middle of 2019 rose by a further 17 per cent to £285m.
