Chelsea Football Club has been charged with 74 breaches of agent regulations by the Football Association. The breaches span across 2009 to 2022 during Roman Abramovich’s ownership of the club, primarily between 2010/11 and 2015/16 seasons. The breaches entail rules on agents, intermediaries, and third-party investments.
These charges are significant with reports of how Chelsea made an illegal payment to Eden Hazard’s agent to effect a move for Hazard to Chelsea instead of United.
However, Chelsea are confident that they will avoid points deduction, transfer embargo, or any other sporting sanction. While they are waiting on the Football Association to penalize them, they anticipate a fine rather than other sanctions, one comparable with the £80m UEFA settlement that was agreed in 2023 for the same payments.
Breaches contained in the FA Regulations charges
Some of the breaches include;
- FA Football Agents Regulations (Regulations J1 and C2)
- FA Regulations on Working with Intermediaries (Regulations A2 and A3)
- FA Third Party Investment in Players Regulations (Regulations A1 and B3)
Chelsea has been given until 19th September 2025 to give a response to these charges.
Deals under scrutiny
Our sources say that the transfers under investigation include the signing of Eden Hazard, William and Samuel Eto. The charges are primarily associated with transfers between the seasons which Chelsea won the Champions League, a Premier League title, the Europa League and the FA Cup.
Former United’s manager, Sir Alex Ferguson had claimed that Chelsea beat him to the signing of Hazard in 2012 by making a £6m payment to the Hazard’s agent.
“What we’re finding anyway, the climate for buying these top players – not just the transfer fees, the salaries, agents’ fees – is just getting ridiculous now. In the Hazard deal, Chelsea paid the agent £6m. The (Samir) Nasri situation was the same. It’s all about what you think is value for a player. I am not envious of those deals at all. We placed a value on Hazard which was well below what they were talking about.”
These alleged payments were discovered during the diligence process when Abramovich sold the club to the Clearlake-Boehly consortium and were self reported to the FA and the Premier League. In addition to that, it was discovered that £100m was set aside from the agreed sale price of £2.5bn to cover any financial penalties that may arise from the deal.
From all indications it is believed that non of the players were aware of the misconducts.
In Chelsea’s defense, they won’t be challenging the charges. That notwithstanding, they have provided the FA and Premier League full access to Chelsea’s files and co-operated as much as possible at every stage.
A statement from Chelsea read, “The Club’s ownership group completed its purchase of the club on May 30, 2022. During a thorough due diligence process prior to completion of the purchase, the ownership group became aware of potentially incomplete financial reporting concerning historical transactions and other potential breaches of FA rules. Immediately upon completion of the purchase, the club self-reported these matters to all relevant regulators, including the FA.
“The club has demonstrated unprecedented transparency during this process, including by giving comprehensive access to the club’s files and historical data. We will continue eworking 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.”
Meanwhile it is understood that the results from Chelsea’s internal investigations revealed that profit and sustainability rules would not be have been breached at any stage.
