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Chelsea has been fined a record £10 million and handed a suspended transfer ban after admitting to making £47 million in secret payments to unregistered agents and third parties. The infractions occurred between 2011 and 2018. This penalty is the largest financial fine ever imposed by the Premier League, nearly doubling the previous record set by West Ham in 2007.
However, the Blues avoided a sporting sanction, such as a points deduction, for what the Premier League called "voluntarily self-reporting... historical breaches of rules".
Chelsea also received an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban and a £750,000 fine over the registration of academy players between 2019 and 2022.
The Premier League's report named a number of transfers related to the unregistered payments, including those of Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto'o, Willian, Ramires, David Luiz, Andre Schurrle and Nemanja Matic.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of those players.
Payments to representatives of another four players are detailed by the Premier League. But their names have been redacted in the report. No reasons have yet been given for them not being made public.
The club accepted the charges, which occurred under Roman Abramovich's ownership.
The Premier League said "undisclosed payments by third parties associated with the club were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties" for the "benefit or Chelsea".
The Premier League added that the £10m fine would have been £20m, but was reduced by 50% on account of Chelsea's proactive self-reporting and co-operation with the process.
Chelsea self-reported the potential breaches after Todd Boehly's consortium acquired the club in 2022.
The club said: "From the outset of this process, the club has treated these matters with the utmost seriousness, providing full cooperation to all relevant regulators."
The Premier League said Chelsea would not have breached its Profitability and Sustainability rules during the applicable seasons, even if the payments had been registered and it therefore did not deem a points deduction to be an appropriate punishment.
In 2023, the Blues were fined £8.6m by Uefa for "submitting incomplete financial information" for the period between 2012 and 2019.
A separate FA disciplinary process investigating alleged "use of and the making of payments to unregistered agents" is ongoing.
