Chelsea FC have been fined a record £10.7 million and handed a suspended 12-month transfer ban after investigations found the club made undisclosed payments during the ownership era of former owner Roman Abramovich.
The sanction was confirmed by the Premier League following a probe into historical financial dealings linked to player transfers between 2011 and 2018.
Under the ruling, Chelsea will not face an immediate transfer ban.
However, the one-year restriction on registering first-team players has been suspended for two years, meaning the penalty will only take effect if the club commits further breaches within that period.
In addition to the £10.7 million fine — the largest ever imposed by the Premier League — Chelsea have also been banned from signing academy players registered with the Premier League or the English Football League for nine months and fined an additional £750,000 over separate rule violations.
According to the Premier League, the investigation established that several payments linked to the club were not disclosed to football authorities at the time.
“As a result of the Premier League’s investigation, it was established that between 2011 and 2018, undisclosed payments by third parties associated with the club were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties,” the league said in a statement.
“These payments were not disclosed to the football regulatory authorities 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 league added that the club accepted responsibility for the breach and acknowledged that failing to disclose the payments violated league rules.
“The club has also accepted, among other things, that the making of these payments, as well as failure to disclose them to the League, constituted a breach of the requirement to act in good faith towards the League,” the statement said.
Despite the breaches, the Premier League said its financial review showed that Chelsea would not have violated financial sustainability regulations even if the payments had been properly reported at the time.
“Having undertaken that assessment, the Premier League Board was satisfied that in no scenario would the club have breached the League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules during the relevant periods, had the relevant payments been properly included in the club’s historical financial submissions,” the league said.
The governing body also noted that Chelsea’s current ownership group played a major role in resolving the case after voluntarily reporting the historical issues and cooperating fully with investigators.
“When considering the appropriate sanction, the Premier League Board noted that the club’s proactive self-reporting, admissions of breach and exceptional co-operation throughout the investigation acted as significant mitigating factors,” the statement added.
“The Premier League and Chelsea FC have now entered into a sanction agreement under which the club accepts a £10m fine and a suspended one-year first team transfer ban.”
The payments under investigation were largely linked to transfers carried out between 2011 and 2018, a period during which Chelsea enjoyed major on-field success, winning multiple trophies including the UEFA Champions League, the Premier League, the UEFA Europa League and the FA Cup.
Chelsea had previously reached an £8 million settlement with UEFA in 2023 over the same payments.
Meanwhile, the club is still awaiting the outcome of a separate investigation by the The Football Association, although reports suggest the governing body is expected to follow the approach taken by the Premier League and UEFA.
The academy-related sanction is understood to be linked to breaches of rules governing early contact with youth players rather than financial irregularities.
Chelsea have not publicly disputed the findings and have accepted the sanctions imposed by the Premier League as part of the settlement agreement.
