Chelsea fined £10m for breaching agent rules
Well, the final whistle on Chelsea FC's financial cheating under Abramovich seems to have blown. The Guardian and our reporting partners practically put it on a plate for the FA and Premier League. They blazed it over the bar. www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Rob Davies98They cheated, they got away with it. Can't imagine what Everton and Leicester fans will make of that.
milo24£10m is an operating expense. They've probably spent more than that in agent fees some years. I know that you know this. Just venting
Gregory Mendham 12Extrapolating from this, I assume Man City might be awarded points when their cases ever conclude.
Kid Charlemagne10They've been fined the equivalent of one year of Reece James's salary. Time to start looking at bungs to FA personnel. #FuckChelsea #FuckTheFA
Michael Smith8Suspended punishment though - good job their record is clean as a whistle or it could have got ugly there
Liam Grayhurst6Music to Man City's ears.
Greg Jenner (Historian)29This is EXTREMELY lenient. Man City's lawyers are presumably popping champagne as we speak
Nicholas Murray25An absolute chimney, if you will.
Matty Dillon21I mean who can now argue that the Premier League isn’t rotten to the core? How Richard Masters can stay in post is unfathomable. Where’s the so called independent regulator?
Cartoon Steve Bould.17Ushers in the wealth tax era. Cheat, come clean, pay your fee.
Mark McFaul12As people have said £10m is basically one year of wages for Reece James. The same club has spent over £100m three times in the past 5 years but sure let's not actually punish them in any meaningful way for being proven to be cheats. Of course Forest and Everton were docked points 🙄
Joe Scaramanga12Pathetic. A £10m fine is barely going to bother a team paying £3.5m a WEEK in wages.
Aaron Lerner11I will believe until my dying day that part of the handshake agreement for Clearlake buying Chelsea after the forced sale is that any penalties for financial cheating under Abramovich would be negligible.
Simon Lock7I worked on the original investigation with @byrobdavies.bsky.social and others. I think it's hard to understate just how far the rot spreads. Abramovich took over Chelsea in July 2003. The first football agreements routed offshore via BVI companies (for "scouting services") began within 4 months!
Grumpelstiltskin6As an Arsenal fan this is pretty galling but am sure it’s 100x worse for Everton fans (my brother is one!), Forest fans, Leicester fans, etc. Basically given a free pass (well £10m pass) to cheat their way to titles and fuck all punishment
Jamie McConville5This pretty much sets the precedent for City to get a similar slap on the wrist. If #NFFC had done something equivalent to this, the club would currently be plying its trade in the Central Midlands Alliance.
The FA announce £10m fine and suspended two-window registration ban for Chelsea from breaches related to Abramovich era It should be a cause for reflection given that Abramovich takeover is seen as an original sin in football privatisation, as so many now decry commercialism.
Dave Robinson11Meanwhile Everton get a record points deduction and a record financial penalty for relatively minor breaches. Chelsea, it seems, can act with impunity from anything other than constant slaps on the wrist.
Danny Newman8Had they been given a hefty points deduction, I would agree. But a fine that small is a slap on the wrist to Chelsea. Meanwhile Forest and Everton got point deductions.
Matt Browner Hamlin7If cheating isn’t punished it’s effectively allowed. Sad response in a moment where real oversight was possible.
grumpy-bob.bsky.social3Another suspended ban? What needs to happen for one of them to actually be triggered? A truly pitiful cop out for that unprecedented period of financial crimes.
Sarah3Any info on why the two-window registration ban has been suspended?
Economics Teacher2Any trophies won during that period should be rescinded. Don’t care who is now in charge, they won them by having an unfair advantage over other teams who were playing within the rules
Chelsea fined £10m for didgy payments to football agents over a lengthy period. Or in monetary terms 3 fingers of Morgan Rogers left hand. Fines to mega rich clubs are an occupational hazard and an unlikely deterrent. A player transfer ban for 2 years now that would be a proper deterrent. #lufc
MartinC2There should have been a points deduction. Big clubs getting away with murder again.
Brian Yeadon2A delay in the Man City verdict due to the time it’s taking to design and construct the Infantino trophy that will be handed out for the most creative management of finances by a single club
Nobbylufc1Dread to think what would to Leeds if they had any financial irregularities Demotion a division,15 point deduction and a 25 million fine,but Chelsea,city and others bend and break the rules with little or no punishment
