Chelsea have been fined $20.2 million AUD but managed to avoid a points deduction after admitting to breaching Premier League rules in relation to undisclosed payments of more than $60 million during the club's previous ownership under Roman Abramovich.
Sanction agreements were reached after Chelsea self-reported potential breaches to the Football Association that came to light in 2022 when American investors Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital led a consortium to buy out Abramovich.
Payments worth around $89 million were made from third-party entities which, league officials said, were “controlled by or associated with” Abramovich to unlicensed agents and individuals connected to selling clubs, facilitating transfers for players including Eden Hazard, David Luiz, Samuel Eto’o and Willian.
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“It was established that between 2011 and 2018, undisclosed payments by third parties associated with the club were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties,” the league said in a statement.
“These payments were not disclosed to the football regulatory authorities at the time, including the Premier League.”
The undisclosed payments “were made for the benefit of Chelsea,” the statement said, “and should have been treated as having been made by the club.”
They “constituted a breach of the requirement to act in good faith towards the league."
Chelsea accepted the fines which were ratified by an independent commission and were given an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban and a suspended one-year transfer ban for first-team players.
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No point deductions were applied, however.
The club said it was “pleased” to reach a settlement with the Premier League.
“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 said.
The league noted Chelsea's “proactive self-reporting, admissions of breach and exceptional cooperation throughout the investigation acted as significant mitigating factors,” with the club sharing more than 200,000 documents with the Premier League.
The league also said it was satisfied that Chelsea “in no scenario” would have breached the league's profitability and sustainability rules in those periods if the payments made had been properly included in the club’s accounts.
These factors helped to reduce the fine by around 50 per cent and meant a points penalty was not deemed appropriate.
Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior said the sanctions would not be a “negative distraction”.
“I think actually that’s a line drawn through that issue and we can move on and we can plan to make this club as strong as possible,” he said on Tuesday (AEDT)
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