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Chelsea have been hit with a huge fine and a transfer ban following a Premier League investigation
Chelsea have been fined £10m and handed a suspended transfer ban on first-team signings after admitting £47m had been paid to unregistered agents and third-parties from 2011 to 2018.
BlueCo and Todd Boehly self-reported the club after completing due diligence while purchasing the club from Roman Abramovich in 2022, citing historical financial breaches.
The club have also been hit with a £750,000 fine and a nine-month transfer ban on academy signings, relating to the registration of academy players between 2019 and 2022.
The Premier League's report names seven high-profile transfers Chelsea completed under Abramovich, with Eden Hazard's £32m move from Lille among those.
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The seven tranfers involved include:
- Ramires - £17m from Benfica in August 2010.
- David Luiz - £21.3m from Benfica in February 2011.
- Eden Hazard - £32m from Lille in June 2012.
- Andre Schurrle - £18m from Bayer Leverkusen in June 2013.
- Samuel Eto'o - free transfer from Anzhi Makhachkala in August 2013.
- Willian - £30m from Anzhi Makhachkala in August 2013.
- Nemanja Matic - £21m from Benfica in January 2014.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing from the players involved in the transfers, with payments also made to representatives of four other stars, whose names have been redacted by the Premier League.
There has been no explanation from the Premier League as to why those names have been left out of the report, but Chelsea have accepted the charges brought to them.
It's the biggest fine in Premier League history, almost double West Ham United's £5.5m fine after the signings of Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez in 2007.
The Premier League say the £10m fine imposed on the Blues would have been double that amount had the Blues' current ownership group not self-reported the irregularities.
A club statement read: "Chelsea Football Club is pleased to confirm that the club has reached a settlement with the Premier League in relation to historical regulatory matters that were self-reported by the club in 2022. As previously announced, the club voluntarily and proactively disclosed to all applicable regulators potential historical rule breaches, including incomplete financial reporting that took place over a decade ago.
"During an extensive Premier League investigation, the club proactively disclosed many thousands of documents. Also, when requests for information were made by the Premier League, the club promptly provided comprehensive responses and facilitated all lines of inquiry to support a complex and extremely thorough process.
"Furthermore, during the investigation, additional evidence was provided to the club by a third party regarding potential breaches of Premier League rules committed by a former employee in a small number of historical academy transactions. This information was immediately and proactively self-reported to the Premier League.
"The club wishes to make clear that following robust financial analysis by the Premier League, it was concluded that “in no scenario would the club have exceeded the maximum allowable loss of £105 million over the three-year assessment period in the Rules.” Accordingly there is no scenario in which the club could have been in breach of the applicable limits in the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules during the applicable seasons historically.
"From the outset of this process, the club has treated these matters with the utmost seriousness, providing full cooperation to all relevant regulators. The club welcomes the recognition from the Premier League of its “exceptional cooperation” and that “without those voluntary disclosures and the act of self-reporting, a number of the Premier League rule breaches may never have come to the attention of the League”.
"The club accepts the terms of the settlement in full, details of which have been published on the Premier League website. For clarity, the nine-month restriction on registering Academy players applies immediately, but only to Academy players who have previously been registered with another League or EFL club in the preceding 18 months.
"It does not apply to current Chelsea players, international players or players who are applying for their first registration at Under 9. We are pleased that the matter is now concluded."
It's the second time Chelsea have been fined for financial irregularities, after being hit with a £8.6m fine by UEFA for "submitting incomplete financial information" for the period between 2012 and 2019.
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