Chelsea are in negotiations with the Premier League to agree a financial settlement for secret payments related to transfers made during Roman Abramovich’s ownership.
The club are understood to be in talks over a financial
settlement rather than a sporting sanction such as a points deduction, on the
basis that the new owners discovered the payments during the May 2022 takeover
process and reported them to the Premier League and Uefa.
The outcome of the negotiations is expected before the end
of March, with the club confident there can be an agreement similar to
the £8.6million financial settlement made with Uefa in July 2023.
The Times revealed in 2023 that the Premier League was
investigating alleged irregular payments related to Willian and Samuel Eto’o being
signed by Chelsea in 2013. Payments connected to the signing of Eden Hazard in
2012 have also been under investigation.
Normally secret payments related to transfers would lead to
tough sanctions such as points deductions but Chelsea have argued that any rule
breaches took place under a different ownership ten years ago, and indeed the
payments would not have been revealed and reported had it not been for the new
owners’ due diligence process.
The Premier League’s rulebook allows for a “sanction agreement”
between its board and a club, which must then be ratified by the league’s
Judicial Panel. Sanction agreements could include a points deduction but
Chelsea are understood to be insistent that, as with Uefa, any financial
payment would be a settlement rather than a sanction.
A source with knowledge of the negotiations said talks were
continuing and that the case involved events that took place many years before
Todd Boehly and Clearlake, Chelsea’s owners, were involved with the club, and
that it was their work that had brought the irregular payments to light.
Although the case is not related to recent Profitability and
Sustainability Rules, if the outcome is a financial settlement that could raise
eyebrows among fans of other clubs given that Everton and Nottingham Forest
received points deductions last season for breaching the limit of permitted
losses.
In August, the Premier League’s chief executive, Richard
Masters, said the investigation was “reaching a conclusion”, adding that: “What
we are talking about is something historic.”
Leaked documents obtained by The Guardian in 2023 appeared
to show that the former Chelsea director, Marina Granovskaia, was sent copies
of agreements related to payments around the transfers of Willian, Eto’o and
Hazard. Granovskaia, a 50-year-old Russian-Canadian who previously worked as an
aide for Abramovich, has previously declined to comment, saying she was “not
available”. She did not respond to follow-up messages.
In a 2023 statement, Chelsea referred to “potentially
incomplete financial reporting concerning historical transactions during the
club’s previous ownership” that had been flagged up during the takeover
process, and that they were “proactively” assisting the investigations.
The statement said: “These allegations pre-date the club’s
current ownership. They concern entities that were allegedly controlled by the
club’s former owner and do not relate to any individual who is presently at the
club. Immediately following the completion of the purchase, the club
proactively self-reported these matters to all applicable football regulators.”
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