LONDON, March 16 : Chelsea have been fined a record total of 10.75 million pounds ($14.28 million) for breaches of the Premier League’s rules relating to financial reporting, third-party investment and youth development, the league said on Monday.
The club has also been hit with a one-year first team transfer ban, suspended for two years, as well as an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban.
In a statement, the Premier League said Chelsea’s current owners voluntarily reported in 2022 that they had evidence of a potential breach of the rules.
“The Premier League has concluded two separate disciplinary processes involving Chelsea Football Club, following the club voluntarily self-reporting potential historical breaches of rules,” the league said.
After an investigation, the Premier League said it had established that between 2011 and 2018, undisclosed payments by third parties associated with Chelsea 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 Premier League said.
“The club has also accepted, among other things, that the making of these payments, as well as the failure to disclose them to the League, constituted a breach of the requirement to act in good faith towards the League.”
During the time period, the London club was still owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. He sold the club in 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with a consortium led by U.S. investor Todd Boehly and private equity firm Clearlake Capital taking over in May 2022.
The Premier League said it had also assessed a “series of recalculations of the club’s historical financial submissions” which took into account the payments made for the benefit of Chelsea.
“Importantly, having undertaken that assessment, the Premier League Board was satisfied that in no scenario would the club have breached the League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules during the relevant periods, had the relevant payments been properly included in the club’s historical financial submissions,” the Premier League said.
An investigation into breaches of the Premier League’s Youth Development Rules – again after a voluntary report by the club – centred around the registration of academy players between 2019 and 2022.
The sanctions will take effect immediately with the club also paying the full costs of the league’s investigation and disciplinary processes.
“From the outset of this process, the club has treated these matters with the utmost seriousness, providing full cooperation to all relevant regulators,” Chelsea said in a statement.
The financial sanction is the highest ever imposed by the Premier League. The previous record fine (5.5 million pounds) was given to West Ham United in 2007.
($1 = 0.7529 pounds)
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