Chelsea may not win the English Premiership title this year but it has
become the first prominent football club to produce a stand-alone CSR
report.
The London club, owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich,
believes it has led the footballing pack on CSR with its first report,
covering 2005/6. Many British clubs, at the behest of the Football
Association, now include brief statements on social responsibility in
their annual reports, but until now none has issued a more detailed
standalone report.
Chief executive Peter Kenyon said: ‘It’s not only the first of its kind
for Chelsea FC, but we also believe it’s the first time a top football
club has drawn together and presented all its work that comes under the
CSR banner.’
The 44-page document, published in pdf format on the club’s corporate
website, is not assured and does not refer to the sustainability
guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative. However, Chelsea says it
will examine how to bring the report ‘into line with those of FTSE 100
companies’ and ‘endeavour to engage all our key stakeholders better in
terms of consultation’. It will also consider joining bodies such as
Business in the Community.
Using formulae suggested by Deloitte and Business in the Community, the
report shows that Chelsea spent £4.34million ($8.68m), or 2.8 per cent
of its annual turnover, on community activities last year. The tally
includes items such as the cost of donating services, facilities,
football shirts, match tickets, and direct charitable donations.
The statement also covers Chelsea’s Football in the Community
programme, which worked with more than 200,000 children and 113 schools
in south-east England last year.
Kenyon said CSR was now ‘an integral part’ of Chelsea’s aim to be
regarded as ‘the world’s number one football club’ by 2014. ‘We want
Chelsea to be seen as a social leader as well as an industry leader,’
he said.
