Charlton Athletic Women: Unaudited Accounts, a Parent's Guarantee and a Disclaimed Audit

Starting at the bottom

Charlton go to West Ham at 2pm on Sunday still looking for their first WSL point. They have scored five goals and conceded 28 in nine matches, and are six points behind Birmingham City, who went up with them. They were promoted on 23 May 2026 through the play-off against Leicester City, which they won on penalties after extra time.

A difficult first season is common for promoted clubs, and the gap between the divisions has grown as top-flight budgets have risen. The filings explain the financial structure Charlton took into the division.

The women's company

The accounts of Charlton Athletic Womens Football Club Limited for the year to 30 June 2025 cover the season before promotion. As a small company it has not filed a profit and loss account, so turnover and wages are not public, but the going-concern note gives the loss.

The amount owed to other group companies rose by £1.1m over the year, close to the size of the loss, so the group funded the season. The accounts also carry a £2.2m capital contribution reserve, which the notes attribute to financing from the club's previous parent, Clear Ocean Capital Limited. The directors say the club will need more funding to continue as a going concern, that its immediate parent will provide it, and that the parent has given a letter of financial support for at least twelve months from the date they were signed, 29 September 2026.

Why there was no audit

The company is not required to have its accounts audited, because it uses an exemption available to subsidiaries whose parent guarantees their liabilities. Alongside the accounts, it filed a statement of guarantee from the parent, a notice that its members agreed to the exemption, and the parent's consolidated accounts. That parent is SE7 Partners Limited, which bought both Charlton companies on 21 July 2023 and is controlled by Global Football Partners Limited, a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

So readers looking for audited figures are pointed to SE7 Partners' group accounts for the same year. Those accounts were audited by S&W, and the auditor's report opens with a disclaimer of opinion.

What the auditor said

A disclaimer means the auditor does not express an opinion on whether the accounts give a true and fair view. S&W says it could not obtain enough audit evidence to provide a basis for one. It explains that in August 2024 the group was subject to a cyber-attack that affected its ability to access the accounting system, and supporting documents, used in the four months to 31 October 2023. Together with system and personnel changes, that left management unable to provide sufficient evidence for some transactions in this and the previous year. As a result, the auditor could not determine whether adjustments were needed to the group balance sheets at 30 June 2024 and 2025 or to the results and cash flows for 2025. It also reports that it could not determine whether adequate accounting records had been kept.

A disclaimer is a statement about what the auditor could verify, not a finding that the figures are wrong. The figures themselves are the directors'. They show a group, covering the men's club and the women's club, with turnover of £11,630,000, a loss of £17,359,000 and net liabilities of £48,065,000 at 30 June 2025. Cash at the year end was £467,000.

The group's going-concern note follows the same pattern as the women's. The directors say forecasts show enough cash for at least a year, with further funding from the parent undertaking if needed, and that the parent has given the group a letter of financial support covering at least twelve months.

The filing record

The women's company filed its accounts on time up to the year to 30 June 2022. Since the change of ownership, each set has been filed after its deadline. The accounts to June 2023, due by 31 March 2024, were filed on 30 August 2024. Those to June 2024, due by 31 March 2025, were filed on 19 December 2025. Those to June 2025, due by 31 March 2026, reached Companies House on 30 September 2026 and appeared on the register on 16 October. SE7 Partners' group accounts for the same year were received on the same day.

Companies House published a first notice of compulsory strike-off against the women's company on 28 May 2024 and again on 1 September 2026. The register does not give the reason for either notice. Both were discontinued within a day, and the company is active.

The Bottom Line

Charlton Athletic Women went into the WSL with net liabilities of £2.2m, almost no cash, and a parent that has undertaken in writing to keep funding the club. That is a common position for a women's club inside a larger group. The structure behind it runs through three layers. The women's accounts are unaudited because the parent guarantees them, the parent's group accounts carry an auditor's disclaimer, and the parent's own going-concern basis rests on support from the company above it.

The accounts covering the first WSL season are for the year to 30 June 2026 and are due by 31 March 2027.