Chelsea handed huge fine and transfer ban for breaching Premier League rules
Chelsea have been handed a transfer ban and fine.
Chelsea have been handed an academy transfer ban and a huge fine for historic breaches regarding financial reporting and third-party investment. In 2022, the club’s new owners Bruco (a consortium led by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boley) self-reported to the Premier League after purchasing the club from Roman Abramovich.
The current owner suspected the club had breached Premier League regulations and contacted the Premier League. Chelsea were found guilty of making undisclosed payments to players, unregistered agents and other third parties from third parties connected to the club.
A Premier League statement said these payments were not disclosed to football regulators or the Premier League. As a result, Chelsea accepted a £10m fine, the largest in Premier League history, as well as a one-year first-team transfer ban (and a two-year suspension).
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The club has also been handed an immediate nine-month ban from registering academy players from Premier League and EFL clubs and will pay £750,000 pending further investigation.
The academy ban applies to players of all ages from the original Under-9 level onwards, but only applies to players from other Premier League and EFL clubs and does not apply to contract renewals or overseas players.
A statement from the Premier League said: “The Premier League has completed disciplinary proceedings with Chelsea FC regarding historic breaches regarding financial reporting and third party investment. In 2022, the current owners of Chelsea FC voluntarily reported to the League that they had evidence of possible breaches of Premier League rules.”
“The Premier League’s investigation revealed that between 2011 and 2018, undisclosed payments were made by third parties connected to the club to players, unregistered agents and other third parties. These payments were not disclosed to football regulators at the time, including the Premier League.”
“The payments were made for the benefit of Chelsea FC and should have been treated as having been made by the club. The club also acknowledged, among other things, that its failure to make and disclose these payments to the league constituted a breach of its requirement to act in good faith towards the league.”
Todd Boley, co-owner and chairman of Chelsea (Image: Photo by Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images)
“The Premier League has assessed a series of recalculations of the club’s previous financial filings to take account of payments made for the benefit of Chelsea FC. Importantly, having made that assessment, the Premier League Board was satisfied that if the relevant payments had been properly included in the club’s previous financial filings, the club would not have breached the League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules during the period in question in any scenario.”
“When considering the appropriate sanction, the Premier League Board noted that the club’s active self-reporting, admission of the breach and exceptional cooperation throughout the investigation acted as important mitigating factors.
“The Premier League and Chelsea FC have now entered into a sanctions agreement in which the club sees a £10m fine and a one-year first-team transfer ban (with a two-year suspension).”
“In addition, the league also investigated potential breaches of the Premier League Youth Development Regulations by a former senior official in relation to the club’s academy player registrations from 2019 to 2022. This followed a further voluntary report by the club in 2025.”
“As a result of this further investigation, a separate sanctions agreement has been entered into with Chelsea FC, in which the club has accepted an immediate nine-month ban from registering academy players for Premier League and EFL clubs. The club will also pay a fine of £750,000.”
“All sanctions come into effect immediately and the club will bear the full cost of the league’s investigation and disciplinary proceedings. In accordance with Premier League rules, the sanctions agreement with the club has been reviewed and approved by three members of the league’s independent judicial panel.”
“Separate FA disciplinary proceedings relating to the club’s alleged breaches of FA regulations arising from similar conduct are currently ongoing. In 2022, Chelsea FC also reported historic breaches to UEFA, which resulted in the CFCB First Chamber entering into a settlement agreement with the club. Chelsea FC paid a financial contribution of €10 million (approximately £860 million).”
Chelsea’s US owner Todd Boley has succeeded Roman Abramovich (Image: Getty)
Former owner Abramovich controlled the club from 2003 until 2022, when he sold it to the current owners for £4.25 billion. The club has already been fined by UEFA for “submitting incomplete financial information in 2023” after the current owners discovered “incomplete financial reports” when conducting due diligence to buy the club.
The BBC previously reported that the investigation centered on the transfers of Eden Hazard from Lille and Willian and Samuel Eto’o from Russia’s Anzhi Makhachkala.
The club subsequently released its own statement, saying: “We are pleased to confirm that the club has reached a settlement with the Premier League regarding historic regulatory matters.”
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The club added: “The club would like to clarify that a thorough financial analysis by the Premier League has concluded that ‘in no event could the club have exceeded the maximum allowable loss of £105m over the three-year assessment period set out in the regulations.’
“Therefore, there is no scenario in which a club could have historically breached the applicable limits of the Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Regulations during the relevant season.
“From the outset of this process, the Club has approached these matters with the utmost seriousness and provided full co-operation with all relevant regulatory authorities. The Club welcomes the ‘exceptional co-operation’ from the Premier League and the recognition that ‘without these voluntary disclosures and self-reports, the Premier League’s many breaches of regulations may never have come to the attention of the League.’
“The club has fully accepted the terms of the settlement, the details of which are published on the Premier League website. To be clear, the nine-month restriction on the registration of academy players applies immediately, but only to academy players who have been registered with another league or EFL club within the previous 18 months.”
“This measure does not apply to current Chelsea players, international players or players applying for initial registration with the Under-9s. We are pleased that this matter has been resolved.”
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