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.
What do the charges relate to?
Essentially, Chelsea are accused of making payments worth millions of pounds in relation to player signings that were not registered in the club's accounts submitted to the FA, Premier League and UEFA.
Some of the accounting that has come under scrutiny relates to Eden Hazard's £32m move from Lille to Chelsea in 2012, plus Willian's and Samuel Eto'o's transfers from Anzhi Makhachkala a year later, for £32m and on a free transfer respectively. There is no suggestion that any of the players were guilty of wrongdoing.
One of the reasons the accusations have to be taken so seriously is that they could be seen as Chelsea trying to get around profit and sustainability rules to secure a sporting advantage. However, in the process of looking into their figures, Chelsea say that they hired an independent accountancy firm and they found the club would have still passed the threshold even if all the payments were declared on the official books.
Why did Chelsea report themselves to the authorities?
The discrepancies came to light while the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium was doing its due diligence during the takeover process in 2022.
These related to payments connected to transfers to offshore companies and players' families and representatives, which is why the £100m deduction in the asking price was demanded.
On completing the purchase, the new owners made their findings known to all the governing bodies. They wanted to be open and transparent, particularly given the strong possibility these claims would come out eventually, and they would face potentially even tougher questions. Chelsea wanted to ensure there was a clean slate from the previous era.
Chelsea gave the FA the files and historical data they had discovered that related to the payments. There has been regular dialogue ever since and the club say that whenever the FA has come back with more questions or requests for material, it has been provided.
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.
What do the charges relate to?
Essentially, Chelsea are accused of making payments worth millions of pounds in relation to player signings that were not registered in the club's accounts submitted to the FA, Premier League and UEFA.
Some of the accounting that has come under scrutiny relates to Eden Hazard's £32m move from Lille to Chelsea in 2012, plus Willian's and Samuel Eto'o's transfers from Anzhi Makhachkala a year later, for £32m and on a free transfer respectively. There is no suggestion that any of the players were guilty of wrongdoing.
One of the reasons the accusations have to be taken so seriously is that they could be seen as Chelsea trying to get around profit and sustainability rules to secure a sporting advantage. However, in the process of looking into their figures, Chelsea say that they hired an independent accountancy firm and they found the club would have still passed the threshold even if all the payments were declared on the official books.
Why did Chelsea report themselves to the authorities?
The discrepancies came to light while the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium was doing its due diligence during the takeover process in 2022.
These related to payments connected to transfers to offshore companies and players' families and representatives, which is why the £100m deduction in the asking price was demanded.
On completing the purchase, the new owners made their findings known to all the governing bodies. They wanted to be open and transparent, particularly given the strong possibility these claims would come out eventually, and they would face potentially even tougher questions. Chelsea wanted to ensure there was a clean slate from the previous era.
Chelsea gave the FA the files and historical data they had discovered that related to the payments. There has been regular dialogue ever since and the club say that whenever the FA has come back with more questions or requests for material, it has been provided.
