Chelsea have been slapped with the heaviest fined in Premier League history and given a one-year suspended transfer ban for historical breaches of Premier League rules.
The Blues have been fined £10.75million in total after admitting making £47m in secret payments to unregistered agents and third-parties over transfers between 2011 and 2018.
On top of those sanctions too, they have been hit with a nine-month academy transfer ban and given a £750,000 fine over the registration of academy players between 2019 and 2022.
Chelsea have avoided sterner punishments though, such as a possible points deduction, on the account of voluntarily self-reporting this information to the Premier League The Premier League added that Chelsea’s £10m fine would have been £20m, but was reduced by 50 per cent due to their co-operation with the process.
The English top-flight’s report named a number of transfers related to the unregistered payments, including those of Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto’o, Willian, Ramires, David Luiz, Andre Schurrle and Nemanja Matic.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of those players.
Despite those undisclosed payments, the Premier League’s assessment was that even if the payments had been properly included in historical financial submissions, the club would not have been in breach of the profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).
Chelsea have also been charged by the Football Association with 74 alleged breaches of that governing body’s rules, also in connection to the information the new owners shared with the football authorities.
Chelsea statement on breaching Premier League rules
In relation to the settlement with the Premier League, Chelsea said in a statement: ‘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.
‘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 co-operation’ 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”.’
