Chelsea handed the Premier League's biggest EVER fine and a suspended transfer ban for rule breaks - but silence remains on Man City's 115 charges

Chelsea have been hit with the Premier League’s largest-ever fine as well as handed a suspended one-year transfer ban for their first team and told they cannot make academy signings for nine months after historical beaches of financial rules.

Their £10.75million fine and other sanctions come after the club’s current owners BlueCo voluntarily self-reported their financial irregularities to the footballing authorities, having discovered them while doing their due diligence amid their May 2022 takeover.

Occurring under the Roman Abramovich regime, the Premier League’s investigation found that between 2011 and 2018, undisclosed payments by third parties associated with the club were made to players, unlicensed agents and other individuals. It previously emerged that their signings of Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto'o and Willian were among those transfers investigated.

Crucially, the Premier League found Chelsea would not have breached their PSR rules during the relevant periods, had those in charge of the club at the time reported these payments legitimately rather than try to hide them.

Chelsea were given credit for their co-operation throughout the investigation, which included proactively identifying potential breaches that may have been committed by the previous ownership and disclosing approximately 200,000 documents. It was also accepted by the Premier League that a number of the Blues’ breaches may never have been uncovered, had they not come forward with them of their own accord.

While that helped Chelsea limit their first-team sporting sanction to a suspended ban, the Premier League also investigated potential breaches of their youth development rules committed by a former senior employee at the club, who is currently remaining nameless. That related to the registration of academy players between 2019 and 2022, and was also self-reported by the Blues.

While Chelsea remain the subject of 74 charges by the Football Association, they say they are now grateful to have ended this matter by entering into a sanction agreement with the Premier League, the breakdown of which is as follows:

a £10m fine and a suspended one-year first team transfer ban, suspended for two years

a £750,000 fine and an immediate nine-month ban from registering academy players from Premier League and EFL clubs

That latter ban does not apply to Chelsea’s current players, international players, players who are registering on professional terms, or players who are applying for their first registration at Under-9 level. It is believed the breaches were related to potential infractions involving early contact and took place under the academy's former leadership, who are no longer with the club.

Chelsea’s £10.75m fine beats the Premier League’s previous record of £5.5m issued to West Ham in 2007. The Blues will also pay the full costs of the league’s investigation and disciplinary processes.

Chelsea said in a statement: 'During an extensive Premier League investigation, the club proactively disclosed many thousands of documents. Also, when requests for information were made by the Premier League, the club promptly provided comprehensive responses and facilitated all lines of inquiry to support a complex and extremely thorough process.

‘Furthermore, during the investigation, additional evidence was provided to the club by a third party regarding potential breaches of Premier League rules committed by a former employee in a small number of historical academy transactions. This information was immediately and proactively self-reported to the Premier League.

‘The club wishes to make clear that following robust financial analysis by the Premier League, it was concluded that “in no scenario would the club have exceeded the maximum allowable loss of £105 million over the three-year assessment period in the rules.” Accordingly there is no scenario in which the club could have been in breach of the applicable limits in the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules during the applicable seasons historically.

‘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 added: 'We are pleased that the matter is now concluded.’

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