Chelsea are expecting to be hit with a substantial financial sanction for transfer misdemeanours, after the Football Association charged them on Thursday with 74 breaches of its rules relating to the use of football agents.
The club now face a lengthy charge sheet after an investigation into transfer activity under the ownership of Roman Abramovich. They are accused, among other claims, of making undisclosed payments to secure transfers. Deals under the spotlight include those for Eden Hazard, Willian and Samuel Eto’o.
An FA statement on Thursday confirmed the charges, which relate to alleged breaches of six rules in place during 2009-2022. The case will be heard by an independent regulatory commission. Among the rules cited are those that prevent clubs from making undisclosed payments and using unregistered intermediaries. Chelsea are also charged with breaking regulations that prevent clubs from making deals that allow third parties to “influence materially the club’s policies”.
The commission has the power to levy a sporting sanction, including a points deduction, should it be deemed appropriate. However, Chelsea are understood to anticipate an outcome similar to that struck with Uefa in 2023 over the same “incomplete financial reporting”, which resulted in a €10m fine.
Chelsea on Thursday pointed to their “unprecedented transparency” in self-reporting the alleged breaches when BlueCo completed their takeover in 2022. It also commissioned a study by a leading accountancy firm that found the breaches would not have given the club any benefit under the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules. It is understood BlueCo renegotiated the takeover in order to set aside funds to deal with any future fines. A separate Premier League investigation into the alleged breaches is still taking place.
Chelsea said: “The club has demonstrated unprecedented transparency during this process, including by giving comprehensive access to the club’s files and historical data. We will continue working collaboratively with the FA to conclude this matter as swiftly as possible. We wish to place on record our gratitude to the FA for their engagement with the club on this complex case, the focus of which has been on matters that took place over a decade ago.”
The charges come two years after an investigation by the Guardian and international media partners uncovered a series of payments to agents, made by companies connected to the billionaire Russian oligarch Abramovich.
Beneficiaries of the payments appear to have included the agent of Hazard, an associate of the title-winning manager Antonio Conte and Chelsea officials. Other payments appear to have been connected to the transfers of the players Willian and Eto’o.
The investigation also revealed details of investments made by Abramovich and the super-agent Pini Zahavi in “third-party ownership” of young players across Europe. The FA’s charges are understood to relate in part to the investigation’s findings.
Details emerged during an international investigation known as the Cyprus Confidential files, a cache of 3.6m offshore records leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Germany’s Paper Trail Media, which shared access with the Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and other media. The material, which comes from a Cypriot offshore services provider called MeritServus, was shared with the ICIJ by the nonprofit group Distributed Denial of Secrets.
At the time of the Guardian’s original reporting, Abramovich did not return requests for comment and Zahavi declined to comment.
