Chelsea handed suspended transfer ban and fined £10.75m for breaching Premier League rules

Chelsea have been handed a suspended transfer ban and fined £10.75m for breaching Premier League financial rules while Roman Abramovich was the club’s owner.

The one-year transfer ban, which is suspended for two years, relates to illicit payments to agents and other individuals.

The Premier League has been investigating secret payments that were made by Chelsea between 2011 and 2018.

Chelsea self-reported the irregularities to the Premier League, FA and UEFA after they came to light during the due diligence process when Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s BlueCo consortium bought the club in 2022.

The Premier League giants admitted making £47m in secret payments to unregistered agents and third-parties over transfers.

A number of specific transfers were named in the Premier League’s report, including the deals for Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto’o and David Luiz.

As well as receiving a suspended transfer ban, Chelsea were also hit with an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban relating to the registration of youth players between 2019 and 2022.

A Chelsea statement read: ‘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 cooperation” 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”.’

Chelsea’s suspended ban means they will still be able to sign senior players this summer providing they do not commit any further breaches.

No sporting sanctions such as points deductions have been imposed and the Premier League said they took into account Chelsea’s ‘proactive self-reporting’ and ‘exceptional co-operation’ when considering potential punishments.

Chelsea are currently sixth in the Premier League and preparing to face PSG on Tuesday night in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

Russian billionaire Abramovich sold Chelsea in 2022 after his assets were frozen by the UK government following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Current owners BlueCo have attracted criticism from a large section of the Chelsea fan-base but did lead the club to the Club World Cup title last summer.

Chelsea have spent an estimated £1.8bn on incoming signings since BlueCo took over, though they have also made significant player sales.

During last summer’s transfer window, for example, they both spent and raised around £300m.

Big money was spent on the likes of Joao Pedro, Alejandro Garnacho and Liam Delap, while Noni Madueke, Christopher Nkunku and Joao Felix were among the high-profile departures.

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