Chelsea hit with 74 charges for Abramovich era financial breaches

Chelsea Football Club is facing a significant legal challenge after being charged by the Football Association (FA) with 74 alleged rule breaches. The charges are focused on payments made to agents and intermediaries, as well as third-party investments in players, primarily between the 2010-11 and 2015-16 seasons.

The charges stem from the era of former owner Roman Abramovich, who controlled the club from 2003 until he sold it to a consortium led by American investor Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in 2022.

The new ownership group has stated that it discovered "potentially incomplete financial reporting" during their due diligence process and immediately reported the issues to all relevant regulators, including the FA, after the sale was completed. The club says it has shown "unprecedented transparency" and cooperated fully with the investigation.

The FA has several options for sanctioning Chelsea, including a fine, a transfer embargo, or even a points deduction. However, the club's high level of cooperation is expected to be a mitigating factor.

This is not the first time Chelsea has been penalized for financial issues from the Abramovich era. In July 2023, UEFA fined the club £8.6 million for submitting "incomplete financial information" between 2012 and 2019. The Premier League is also conducting its own investigation into potential financial rule breaches involving transfers, including those of Samuel Eto'o and Willian, which were completed in 2013.

What is Abramovich doing nowadays?

Since selling Chelsea in 2022, Roman Abramovich has been a subject of ongoing scrutiny. He was sanctioned by the UK government over alleged links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he has denied. Although he was granted a special license to sell the club on the condition that he would not benefit from the sale, the £2.5 billion in proceeds has been frozen in a UK bank account and legally still belongs to him.

The UK government has since threatened to sue Abramovich to ensure the money goes to Ukrainian humanitarian aid, as opposed to "all victims of the war in Ukraine" as he had previously stated.