The majority of Chelsea’s misconduct occurred roughly between 2013 and 2017, though they were charged for offences across an eight-year span. It was a period when Jose Mourinho returned and the club won six pieces of silverware: two Premier League titles (2014–15, 2016–17), two FA Cups (2011–12, 2017–18), the EFL Cup (2014–15) and the Europa League (2018–19).
Most players named in the document enjoyed successful careers at Stamford Bridge, becoming key figures in those trophy-winning sides. Chelsea beat many of Europe’s top clubs to sign Eden Hazard from Lille for £32m; he scored 110 goals in 352 games for the club, earned four PFA Team of the Year selections and was PFA Young Player of the Year in 2013–14. Willian made 339 appearances, Nemanja Matić 121 in his second spell, David Luiz 248 across two spells and Ramires 251. By contrast, André Schürrle managed 65 appearances over two seasons without finding consistent form, and Samuel Eto’o scored 12 in 35 games before leaving after one campaign. Five of those players started Chelsea’s 6–0 win over Arsenal on 22 March 2014, a match in which Eto’o, Schürrle and Hazard scored.
Given Chelsea’s success after signing players via secret payments, did the club get off lightly? Had they not been cooperative, they faced a much tougher financial penalty and the real prospect of a points deduction. The Premier League Board identified aggravating factors: the length of wrongdoing, the size of payments, that they were made with knowledge of senior figures, and the seriousness of the breaches. Its initial conclusion was a £20m fine plus a transfer ban covering two complete and consecutive windows.
Mitigating factors reduced that outcome. BlueCo, which bought Chelsea from Roman Abramovich, self-reported the breaches after reviewing the club’s books, made voluntary disclosures and showed “exceptional cooperation.” As a result the fine was halved to £10m and the two-window transfer ban was suspended; the suspension will be activated if a similar breach occurs within two years, and the Board reserved the right to trigger it later if the club makes intentionally untrue declarations. The club was also ordered to pay an unpaid transfer levy of £771,288 relating to Willian and Eto’o.
Crucially, there was no breach of profit and sustainability rules: when the payments were added to Chelsea’s accounts they did not exceed the £105m, three-season spending limit, which meant a points deduction was avoided. Separately, Chelsea were banned from signing academy players for nine months over impermissible contact to register academy players between 2019 and 2022.
Chelsea had already been fined €10m (£8.6m) by UEFA over payment offences between 2011 and 2018, and they still face a hearing over 74 Football Association charges that is likely to result in another substantial fine. So the matter is not yet fully resolved.
