Arsenal and Chelsea affirm dominance with huge revenue surge against WSL rivals
By The Guardian, August 19, 2026After reviewing eight seasons’ worth of Women’s Super League clubs’ financial accounts, it seems appropriate to start by offering a sincere apology to any reader who has become accustomed to seeing the phrase “the Big Four” in Women’s Super League coverage in reference to Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Manchester United.
Financially speaking, that is a myth. There has actually been no such thing in recent times. There has, in fact, been a Big Two: Arsenal and
On-pitch dominance
On the pitch, that quartet has lifted every major domestic women’s trophy since 2014, but off it, the two London clubs have left the rest of the pack in their dust in regard to wages and turnover, together recording more revenue in 2024-25 than the rest of the division combined.
There are several other striking trends across the data—namely, rapidly rising revenues and rapidly rising expenditure, as well as a heavy reliance on club owners to fund sizeable losses.
Cumulatively, WSL clubs have recorded post-tax losses of more than Ksh19.45 billion when combining all of the figures available since the division switched to a winter calendar in the summer of 2017.
Resisting that pattern are Manchester United, who have recorded a profit of Ksh 234.81 million since relaunching their senior women’s team in the summer of 2018. In contrast, Chelsea have lost more than Ksh 6.31 billion over the same timeframe, and there are four further clubs—Brighton and Hove Albion, Leicester City, Manchester City, and Tottenham Hotspur—who have each lost eight-figure sums across those years.
United, who this summer have made clear their intention to focus on youth development, believing current transfer spending is unsustainable, are a unique case study.
In the 2022-23 campaign, when they finished second, their wages amounted to under 50 per cent of their revenue, in a season when Manchester City, Tottenham, and Brighton all spent more than 100 per cent of their revenue on wages.
This is not uncommon across football: a recent report from Deloitte highlighted that 13 men’s Championship clubs spent more on wages than revenue in 2024-25, with that division’s collective wage bill growing to more than Ksh157.71 billion and to 96 per cent of revenue.
Wages for elite women’s players are soaring—on average across the WSL, they quadrupled between 2019 and 2025. Revenues rose strongly over that timeframe too, with the largest chunk of matchday revenue growth coming at Arsenal, whose gate receipts were just Ksh7.89 million nine years ago and totalled nearly Ksh1.05 billion in 2024-25.
On average across WSL clubs, wages rose by 28.2 per cent between 2023-24 and 2024-25, while post-tax losses increased by more than 53 per cent, albeit largely driven by Chelsea’s purchase of Kingsmeadow for Ksh2.10 billion.
Chelsea—who won the league for a sixth straight year in 2024-25—had a total wage bill five times larger than eighth-placed Everton, and three times that of third-placed Manchester United.
Arsenal’s wage bill exceeds Ksh1.75 billion
Arsenal were the only other club whose wage bill exceeded Ksh1.75 billion. Both clubs recorded turnover around twice that of their Manchester rivals. Significantly, that came before the summer 2025 signings when Arsenal broke the Ksh175.23 million transfer barrier to land Canadian winger Olivia Smith, and Chelsea followed suit with the signing of Alyssa Thompson.
Overall, the WSL has seen a 75 per cent increase in agents’ fees year-on-year, with Chelsea exceeding Ksh175.23 million alone. In comparison, West Ham spent Ksh16.99 million, while relegated Leicester spent less than a tenth of Chelsea’s total.
Soon, London City Lionesses could become a new force. Their 2024-25 operating loss of Ksh1.86 billion was 10 times their revenue of Ksh158.06 million, even before bold transfer moves like signing former Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas.
As the WSL gears up for the 2026-27 season—the first featuring potential point deductions for teams whose wage bills exceed 80 per cent of revenue plus up to Ksh700.94 million in owner contributions—the financial accounts will matter more than ever.