Chelsea have been fined the equivalent of €12.4 million and banned from registering new players for one year — suspended for two years — due to financial irregularities committed during the Abramovich era, the Premier League announced today.
The London club, which faces the registration ban becoming effective if it reoffends within two years, was itself responsible for reporting the potential breaches of Premier League financial rules that occurred between 2011 and 2018, when Chelsea was owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
“It was proven that, between 2011 and 2018, undisclosed payments were made by third parties associated with the club to players, unregistered agents and other parties,” the Premier League said in a statement following the conclusion of two disciplinary proceedings brought against the club. According to the league, those payments were made “for the benefit of Chelsea” and “should have been treated as if they had been made by the club,” with the aggravating factor that they “were not disclosed to football’s regulatory authorities at the time, including the Premier League,” constituting “a breach of the requirement to act in good faith in dealings with the league.”
The Premier League acknowledged, however, that Chelsea “would not in any scenario” have breached financial fair play rules had the payments been included in the club’s accounts.
The league noted that the fact that Chelsea — whose Portuguese players include Pedro Neto and Dário Essugo — had self-reported and shown “exceptional cooperation throughout the investigation” were “significant mitigating factors” reflected in the sanction. The club expressed “satisfaction” at the conclusion of the inquiry and said it had “treated these matters with the utmost seriousness, cooperating fully with all relevant regulatory bodies from the outset.”
