Tough sanctions on Chelsea would hit the club's standing in English and European soccer hard // Photo: independent.co.uk .
The amount of the fine became a record in the history of the English Premier League (EPL). According to the official press release of the league, the London Aristocrats were sanctioned because of financial irregularities committed in 2011-2018, when the club’s president was Russian businessman Roman Abramovich.
The evidence is available
The BlueCo consortium, led by American investor Todd Boeli, and investment company Clearlake Capital, which are the owners of Chelsea since May 2022, have informed the EPL that they have evidence of financial irregularities committed by the club’s former management.
The league initiated an investigation that showed that hidden payments were made through the club between 2011 and 2018. Behind them were the structures of Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, who owned Chelsea in 2003-2022. In particular, it was found that payments were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties that were not reflected in the club’s financial statements. According to The Times, soccer authorities are looking into dozens of episodes of irregularities, including those related to payments to intermediaries and transfer deals of previous years.
The new management has admitted to all the identified violations. A mitigating factor in determining the penalty was the fact that information about possible violations appeared after the change of owners, who requested the EPL to initiate an investigation. They cooperated with the regulator, giving it access to all necessary documents.
Cruelest punishment
In addition to the £10.75 million fine, which is a record in the history of the EPL, and a ban on player transfers, there was an unconditional ban on adding new young players to Chelsea’s academy for nine months. No club in England has ever been penalized so severely before.
Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 for £140 million (over €195 million at the time). During his time at the helm, the club became one of the leaders of English and European soccer, winning the Champions League twice, the English Championship and the FA Cup five times each, and winning the UEFA Super Cup in 2021.
After Abramovich was sanctioned in 2022, he was forced to sell the club. A consortium of BlueCo and Clearlake Capital bought Chelsea for £2.5 billion (over €2.9 billion at the time) in May 2022 and also vouched to invest £1.75 billion (€2 billion) in the club’s infrastructure and the development of a women’s team.
“Chelsea are in sixth place out of 20 clubs in the Premier League standings. Londoners in the evening on March 17 will have to play the return match 1/8 finals of the Champions League with the French PSG. The meeting will be held at the home stadium of the “aristocrats” – “Stamford Bridge”. In the first match, the English suffered a defeat with a score of 2:5.
