The Premier League football authority has fined Chelsea Football Club over £10 million and a one-year transfer ban over links to £47 million in secret payments to unregistered agents and third parties in transfer deals between 2011 and 2018.
According to the BBC, the £10m fine is the largest ever imposed by the Premier League, topping the £5.5m fine given to West Ham United in 2007 over the signings of Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez.
The league also issued a £750,000 fine over the registration of academy players between 2019 and 2022.
The Premier League’s report highlighted a number of transfers related to the unregistered payments, including those of Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto’o, Willian, Ramires, David Luiz, Andre Schurrle and Nemanja Matic.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of those players,
The club accepted the historical charges, which occurred under Roman Abramovich’s ownership.
The Premier League said “undisclosed payments by third parties associated with the club were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties” for the “benefit or Chelsea”.
The Premier League added that the £10m fine would have been £20m, but was reduced by 50% on account of Chelsea’s proactive self-reporting and co-operation with the process.
Chelsea self-reported the potential breaches after Todd Boehly’s consortium acquired the club in 2022.
The club said, “From the outset of this process, the club has treated these matters with the utmost seriousness, providing full cooperation to all relevant regulators.”
The Premier League said Chelsea would not have breached its Profitability and Sustainability rules during the applicable seasons, even if the payments had been registered and it therefore did not deem a points deduction to be an appropriate punishment.
