Chelsea FC will have to pay a £10.75 million fine and get a suspended transfer ban after the Premier League closed two disciplinary cases regarding deemed rule breaches by the club in the past.
The league said in a release statement on Monday that an independent review panel has approved two penalty agreements after Chelsea had self-reported potential violations voluntarily. The cases concern breaches of financial reporting rules, third-party investment regulations as well as youth development policies.
The club will be immediately prohibited from academy player transfers for a period of nine months. Besides that, Chelsea were given a one-year ban on signing first-team players; however, this sanction has been suspended for two years.
These problems were triggered by the disclosures of the ownership group of Todd Boehly after the acquisition of the club from Roman Abramovich in 2022. The Premier League has established that between 2011 and 2018, third-party payments were made by persons connected to Chelsea, such as players, unregistered agents, and other individuals, which were not reported properly to the league.
The league pointed out that even if the payments had been included in the club’s financial statements, Chelsea would still not have breached the profitability and sustainability rules.
On the other hand, the Football Association has also issued a charge against the club for 74 alleged rule breaches arising from the same evidence.
