Chelsea heavily fined! Expected transfer ban over secret player deals during Roman Abramovich's era.
On 17 Mar 2026 GMT+7, the Premier League officially announced Chelsea's punishment: the club is banned from registering academy players for 9 months and fined £10.75 million. They avoided an immediate first-team transfer ban but received a suspended transfer ban for 2 years (which would activate if repeated offenses occur within that period). No league points were deducted.
The violations occurred under Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's ownership, but surfaced in 2022 after BlueCo took over and discovered Chelsea had secretly paid players, agents, and third parties a total of £47 million (2.021 billion baht) between 2011-2018. Suspicious deals involved players like Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto'o, and Willian.
Mitigating the severity of the penalty was Chelsea's voluntary self-reporting and full cooperation throughout the investigation. The Premier League confirmed the club did not breach the Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
Nevertheless, this £10 million-plus fine is the largest in Premier League history, surpassing West Ham's £5.5 million fine (236.5 million baht) in 2007 for signing Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez.
Although the Premier League case is closed, Chelsea remains under investigation by the Football Association (FA) for 74 alleged breaches of agent regulations. No timeline has been set for the FA's findings to be announced.