Chelsea have been issued the largest fine in Premier League history and given a suspended one-year transfer ban on their first team after investigations uncovered historic breaches of financial regulations.
The club must also refrain from signing academy players for nine months as part of the sanctions.
The punishment includes a £10.75 million fine and follows a voluntary disclosure by the club’s current owners, BlueCo.
The irregularities were uncovered during due diligence carried out ahead of their takeover in May 2022, after which the ownership reported the findings to football authorities.
The investigation focused on activities that occurred during the Roman Abramovich era.
Premier League officials determined that between 2011 and 2018, third parties connected to the club made undisclosed payments to players, unlicensed agents and other individuals.
Transfers involving Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto’o and Willian were previously reported to be among those examined as part of the probe.
Despite the violations, the league concluded that Chelsea would not have breached Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) during the relevant years if the payments had been properly declared by those running the club at the time rather than concealed.
Chelsea received acknowledgement for cooperating with investigators throughout the process.
The club proactively flagged potential breaches linked to the previous ownership and submitted around 200,000 documents as part of the inquiry.
The Premier League also accepted that several of the violations might never have come to light if the club had not reported them voluntarily.
Although the cooperation helped limit the punishment for the first team to a suspended transfer ban, the league also reviewed possible violations of youth development regulations involving a former senior employee at the club, who has not been publicly identified.
The matter concerns the registration of academy players between 2019 and 2022 and was also self-reported by Chelsea.
