Chelsea have announced losses of £65.7 million for the last financial year.

In a statement released on Friday the Barclays Premier League club confirmed it had achieved "record group turnover and reduced losses for a third successive season" but revealed £23.1m had been paid in compensation to two first team managers and five coaching staff.

The results for the financial year ending June 30, 2008 include severance payments made to former Blues managers Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant.

The figure does not account for compensation paid to Luiz Felipe Scolari, who was sacked as manager earlier this week.

The loss is lower than last year's figure of £74.8m, which was in turn an improvement on the £80.2m loss announced the previous year.

The club announced record losses of £140m in 2004/2005.

The London club, owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, increased group turnover by 11.9% to £213.1m from £190.5m in 2006/07.

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said: "There is no doubt that the positive upward trends of turnover and the continued reduction in losses shows that Chelsea is building a strong business base to build on in what will be challenging times.

"This is even more evident given that the results were adversely affected by the exceptional items."