Chelsea fined £10.75M, given suspended transfer ban for breaking EPL rules

Chelsea has been handed fines totaling 10.75 million pounds ($14.3 million) and a suspended one-year ban from signing players for breaking financial rules during its previous ownership under Roman Abramovich, the Premier League said Monday.

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 for 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion).

The rules related to "financial reporting, third party investment and youth development," the Premier League said.

"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 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," the competition said.

Chelsea accepted the fine ratified by an independent commission and was given an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban and a suspended one-year transfer ban for first-team players.

The club said it was "pleased" to reach a settlement with the Premier League.

"From the outset of this process," Chelsea said in its own statement, "the club has treated these matters with the utmost seriousness, providing full cooperation to all relevant regulators."

The league noted Chelsea's "proactive self-reporting, admissions of breach and exceptional cooperation throughout the investigation acted as significant mitigating factors."

It 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.

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