[
](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SbKu!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8528d16d-fb6d-404b-81e2-1080d25d2bdf_1200x675.jpeg)
After a lengthy disciplinary process, the Premier League has reached a settlement agreement with Chelsea in respect of historical breaches against its rules under the Roman Abramovich regime.
Specifically, the Premier League said, “it was established that between 2011 and 2018, undisclosed payments by third parties associated with the club were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties. These payments were not disclosed to the football regulatory authorities at the time.”
The League added, “The payments were made for the benefit of Chelsea FC and should have been treated as having been made by the club. The club has also accepted, among other things, that the making of these payments, as well as failure to disclose them to the league, constituted a breach of the requirement to act in good faith towards the league.”
In addition, the League concluded that a “former senior employee” at Chelsea had breached Youth Development Rules, relating to the club’s registration of Academy players between 2019 and 2022.
This meant that Chelsea had basically “tapped up” Academy players at other clubs by making approaches without the prior written consent of the clubs with which the players were registered at the time.
The dry, legal language in the two Sanction Agreements could not obscure the simple truth that Chelsea had been found guilty of cheating, so this is clearly a very serious matter that brings to mind Arsène Wenger’s old accusations that Chelsea were involved in “financial doping”.
Arguably, it is one of the biggest scandals in the history of the Premier League, as a club that has won the title on five occasions now has an asterisk against some of those successes.