Chelsea Football Club has recorded the biggest loss ever seen in British football, £140m for the year 2004-5, an increase from the £88m deficit of the year before.

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said: “These figures reflect the continuing restructuring of the businesses we began in 2003-04. The rise is down to some exceptional items that were necessary to help us in our aim to break even by 2009-10.”

But some Chelsea fans were sceptical. “These figures are a joke,” said 23-year-old Ronald Harris of London. “How can we stay in business with a performance like this?

“Someone at a senior level is obviously getting something wrong all the time and getting away with it. How on earth do they manage that? Do they have friends in high places?”