Chelsea have been fined a record £10.75m and hit with a suspended transfer ban by the Premier League after making £47.5m in secret payments during the Roman Abramovich era.
The club have also been banned from signing academy players for nine months but have escaped a points deduction or other immediate first-team sporting sanctions.
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After a four-year investigation by the Premier League, Chelsea were found to have:
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Paid £23m to seven unregistered agents for the signings of seven players, including Eden Hazard, David Luiz and Ramires
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Made a £19.3m payment to two entities in connection with the transfers of Willian and Samuel Eto’o
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Self-reported the financial irregularities, following the purchase of the club from Abramovich in 2022 by the current owners
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Included a £100m reduction in sale fee due to Abramovich to account for possible fines
What were Chelsea investigated for?
The illicit payments were uncovered during the due diligence process when the Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly consortium bought the club from Abramovich. They were self-reported by the current owners to Uefa, the FA and the Premier League. Telegraph Sport revealed in June 2022 that £100m was set aside from the agreed £2.5bn sale price to cover any financial penalties that may occur as a result.
These payments were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties by offshore entities linked to Abramovich, which was reported by the club following the May 2022 takeover.
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The payments helped Chelsea secure the signatures of some of the best players of the era ahead of their Premier League and European rivals.
Chelsea beat Manchester United to the signing of Eden Hazard – Ozan Kose/AFP
The punishments, announced on Monday, form part of two sanction agreements between the league and Chelsea over various offences dating between 2011 and 2022.
The club are also facing further action from the Football Association, having been charged with 74 alleged breaches of its rules related to payments to agents between 2009 and 2022.
They were previously fined €10m (£8.64m) by Uefa in July 2023 for incomplete financial reporting by their previous owners in 2018 and 2019.
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The players at centre of secret payments
The secret payments for which Chelsea were sanctioned on Monday involve the signings of Hazard, Willian, Ramires, David Luiz, Andre Schurrle, Nemanja Matić and Eto’o, as well as other unnamed footballers.
Those signings in turn helped the club become the most successful side of the early-to-mid 2010s, between them winning two Premier League titles, two FA Cups, the League Cup, the Champions League and the Europa League.
There is no suggestion the players named on Monday were aware of any misconduct.
In total, the investigation found a third-party entity related to Chelsea had made payments of:
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£23m to seven unregistered agents for the signings of seven players: Hazard, Ramires, David Luiz, Schurrle and Matic, as well as two other players whose names were redacted from the report
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£19.3m to two entities in connection with the transfers of Willian and Eto’o
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A £3.8m payment to one entity in connection with the transfer of an unnamed player
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£1.37m given to Frank Arnesen, the former Chelsea sporting director, and scout Piet de Visser, plus another unnamed individual
Concerns now raised over Manchester City
The fine announced by the Premier League is its largest ever, but the lack of sporting sanction raises questions over whether it is a sufficient deterrent for such conduct.
It has the potential to result in a similar outcome in the ongoing case involving the approximate 130 charges against Manchester City. There remains no expected timeframe on any verdict regarding the City charges, more than three years after they were announced and 15 months since the near three-month hearing concluded.
The Chelsea punishment reflects how the current ownership group self-reported the historical breach of regulations upon buying the club from Abramovich and demonstrated “unprecedented” transparency and co-operation in the matter.
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A Premier League statement said: “As a result of the Premier League’s investigation, 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. These payments were not disclosed to the football regulatory authorities at the time, including the Premier League.
“The payments were made for the benefit of Chelsea FC and should have been treated as having been made by the club. The club has also accepted, among other things, that the making of these payments, as well as failure to disclose them to the league, constituted a breach of the requirement to act in good faith towards the league.”
The investigation concluded that the payments would not have meant Chelsea breaching any profit and sustainability rules and, following mitigation for their self-reporting, a £10m fine and one-year first-team transfer ban, suspended for two years, were agreed.
The £750,000 balance of Chelsea’s £10.75m fine and the ban on academy signings is for offences relating to the club breaking rules on early contact with youngsters between 2019 and 2022. The ownership self-reported the academy matter last year.
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The ban covers players previously registered with another Premier League or English Football League club in the last 18 months. It does not apply to existing Chelsea academy players signing contracts, or players registering for the first time at under-9 level, and the club can still sign international players.
What have Chelsea said?
Chelsea said they provided thousands of documents for the Premier League’s investigation and provided comprehensive responses to support the process.
A club statement added that “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.”
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It said: “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’.”
What did we know previously about payments?
In 2012, the former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson claimed Chelsea beat him to the signing of Hazard by making a £6m payment to the player’s agent.
Ferguson said: “What we’re finding anyway, the climate for buying these top players – not just the transfer fees, the salaries, agents’ fees – is just getting ridiculous now. In the Hazard deal, Chelsea paid the agent £6m. The [Samir] Nasri situation was the same. It’s all about what you think is value for a player. I am not envious of those deals at all. We placed a value on Hazard which was well below what they were talking about.”
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The entire football leadership team of the Abramovich era left after the Clearlake-Boehly takeover. Neil Bath and Jim Fraser, who were credited with building and establishing the club’s academy as one of the best in the world, also left Chelsea in July 2024.
Chelsea were previously punished for breaching the rules during the Abramovich era. The club were hit with a transfer ban and £460,000 fine by Fifa in 2019 for 150 rule breaches involving 68 academy players over a number of seasons.