The Football Association (FA) has charged Chelsea with 74 alleged breaches of its regulations between 2009 and 2022.
The charges centre on a period of time when the club was under the ownership of Roman Abramovich and “primarily relate to events that occurred between the 2010-11 to 2015-16 playing seasons”, the FA said.
Abramovich was disqualified as a director of Chelsea by the Premier League in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the previous month. That came after the UK government froze the Russian billionaire’s assets due to his “close ties with the Kremlin”.
In May of that year, Chelsea’s current ownership of the investor consortium BlueCo led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital bought the club.
The alleged breaches are in relation to the governing body’s agent regulations, regulations on working with intermediaries, and third party investment in players regulations.
An FA statement on Thursday read: “The Football Association has today charged Chelsea FC with breaches of Regulations J1 and C2 of the FA Football Agents Regulations, Regulations A2 and A3 of the FA Regulations on Working with Intermediaries, and Regulations A1 and B3 of the FA Third Party Investment in Player Regulations.
“In total, 74 charges have been brought against Chelsea FC.
“The conduct that is the subject of the charges range from 2009 to 2022 and primarily relates to events that occurred between the 2010-11 to 2015-16 playing seasons.”
The club have until September 19 to respond with scope for that deadline to be extended given the extent of the charges.
Chelsea insist the charges relate to the Abramovich era only. The FA refused to clarify when asked to do so by The Athletic.
The club said on Thursday that they were “pleased” that the issue “self-reported by the club is now reaching a conclusion”.
“During a thorough due diligence process prior to completion of the purchase, the (current) ownership group became aware of potentially incomplete financial reporting concerning historical transactions and other potential breaches of FA rules,” the statement continued. “Immediately upon the completion of the purchase, the club self-reported these matters to all relevant regulators, including The FA.”
Chelsea said they had “demonstrated unprecedented transparency during this process, including by giving comprehensive access to the club’s files and historical data”.
The club added: “We will continue working collaboratively with the FA to conclude this matter as swiftly as possible. We wish to place on record our gratitude to the FA for their engagement with the club on this complex case, the focus of which has been on matters that took place over a decade ago.”
Following the club’s self-reporting, UEFA fined them €10million (£8.6m, $11m at the time) in July 2023 and the club are again expecting a financial sanction from the FA, rather than a sporting one. A Premier League investigation remains ongoing.
(Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)