Chelsea football club has been ordered to pay a £10.75 million ($14.27 million) fine and were handed a suspended one-year transfer ban after being found guilty of past violations of Premier League regulations.
The punishment was announced on Monday and also includes an immediate nine-month restriction on academy-related transfer activity, according to the league authorities.
The disciplinary action stems from findings uncovered after a consortium led by American businessman Todd Boehly completed the purchase of the London club from Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2022.
Following the takeover, the club’s new ownership provided information to the league concerning earlier financial activities.
Investigations revealed that between 2011 and 2018, certain payments linked to the club were made through third parties.
These payments, it was gathered, were directed toward players, unregistered agents and other individuals but were not disclosed in official financial submissions to the league during that period.
Despite the discovery, the Premier League determined that the omissions did not ultimately cause the club to break the competition’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules, PSR.
According to the league, even if those payments had been properly declared in the financial filings at the time, Chelsea would still have remained within the acceptable financial limits set by the regulations.
League officials also pointed to the conduct of the club’s current ownership during the investigation as a key factor in determining the penalties imposed.
Officials said that Chelsea’s proactive self-reporting, admissions of breach and exceptional co-operation were also mitigating circumstances when it came to deciding the severity of the punishments to be imposed upon the west London side.
In addition to the sanctions issued by the Premier League, the club is also facing separate disciplinary proceedings from the Football Association, FA.
The governing body has charged Chelsea with 74 alleged breaches of its own rules, connected to the same information disclosed by the club’s current ownership group after the takeover.
The case forms part of a wider review of historical financial practices at the club following the ownership transition in 2022, as the new management sought to clarify previous dealings and address regulatory concerns raised by football authorities in England.
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