Chelsea fined £10m and given suspended transfer ban by FA over agent breaches

Chelsea have been fined £10m by the FA and served with a suspended transfer ban for multiple violations of transfer rules during the Roman Abramovich era.

The sanction reflects a similar punishment handed to the Blues by the Premier League earlier this year after the club was found to have used unlicensed agents and sought to obscure the nature of their transfer dealings between 2009 and 2022. Deals involving Chelsea legends Samuel Eto’o, Eden Hazard and Willian were among those found to have breached the rules. The commission originally handed down a stronger sanction that would have given Chelsea a suspended six-point deduction, but it was overturned after an appeal by the club.

The offences were self-reported by Chelsea when new ownership entered Stamford Bridge in 2022 and the disciplinary panel praised the club for its actions as well as its co-operation through the hearing. Chelsea, who are also operating under a settlement agreement with Uefa, said they had “worked openly and transparently with all regulators” and were “pleased to confirm that this brings all regulatory proceedings against the club to a close”.

Written reasons published by the FA show the independent commission took a very dim view of the Abramovich-era administration, saying their rule-breaking showed “a shameful and arrogant disregard for the rules of the game … which has done so much to bring the game of football in general, and the name of CFC into disrepute”. They also said, however, that there were aspects of the case brought by the FA that caused them “particular concern”.

While praising the FA’s co-operation on the case, the commission criticised the governing body for both failing to charge individuals related to the misdemeanours and for requesting that a sporting sanction should not be applied as punishment. After a submission by the Premier League, which also argued against a sporting sanction, Chelsea appealed against the commission’s original sanction and the six-point deduction was replaced with a suspended two-window ban on registering new players. While the commission had originally argued Chelsea had both sought and gained a sporting advantage from their actions, the appeal board found that there was insufficient evidence to show that any advantage had actually been achieved.

The Premier League and the FA had been examining tens of millions of pounds in secret payments made by offshore companies that were owned by Abramovich. Details of the transactions were uncovered as part of Cyprus Confidential, an investigation by the Guardian and international media partners, based on a leak of data from Cypriot financial services firms that the Russian oligarch used to manage his vast fortunes.

Deals revealed by the leak included apparent off-book payments to Hazard’s agent and an associate of the title-winning manager Antonio Conte.

The FA said that the entirety of Chelsea’s £10m fine will be invested into grassroots football.