Token fine deemed sufficient punishment for Chelsea's persistent rule-breaking

Premier League were satisfied no PSR breach and significant mitigation given for new owners owning up.

They cheated, they broke the rules, many times, and they got a paltry fine and suspended sentence….

The suspended ban is a total irrelevance, this ban should not be suspended but should have come into force in the summer.

I read a piece a while back and the payments made by Abramovich were direct payments to players and agents. So how do the likes of Everton, Forest and Leicester get points deductions for overspending the PSR rules, yet Chelsea, through their previous owner, Abramovich, get a suspended sentence rather than a points deduction?

But obviously we are still waiting for the ruling on Man City... No doubt they have set the precedent of a suspended sentence, so no doubt the same will be meted out to Man City.

Mind, the rest of the gutless chairmen of all the other Premier League clubs will just nod this through.

It's telling that the Premier League say they recalculated all the historical accounts with the illegal payments added in and -- surprise, surprise -- Chelsea never breached any PSR thresholds!!

Yea, right. Just far too easy to make sure that was the case in retrospect, so that any real embarrassment of the Premier League could be avoided.

What a scam.

A £10M fine is nothing to Chelsea -- they will just sell part of a car park back to themselves to cover it.

They have gained sporting advantage by illegal means; a points deduction is a sporting punishment and should have been given. A year without European football would hurt them more than a £10M fine.

Is this now the precedent for Man City's 110 breaches? So expect a £20M fine and nothing more to be seen here.

Another nail in the coffin for the beautiful game and fans.

Also, the financial clout of the top clubs are shown again, the Premier League knows going after Chelsea with their financial resources would be expensive and dragged out.

Fuck, look at Man City -- they have the Premier League tied in knots, and when their case finally gets decided, the breaches will be so old the punishment will be minor.

Everton's administration needs to pull their finger out, the fans give their best when supporting this club -- it's about time the administration did. Make this club not only a feared place for opposition teams to come, but also a feared club to deal with and to take on an administrative level.

Everton and all the other non-elitists should sue the horrible rotten Premier League and Chelsea for billions and the government should demand full disclosure.

Now we have this Chelsea verdict which I would guess is a pre-runner to Man City being able to laugh at their sentence while we will be called paranoid for criticising both Chelsea and Man City verdicts when they are announced.

There will be no penalty re transfer or overspending from The Premier League except financial.

The British government will block any penalty re transfer embargo or points deduction.

The Journalist Henry Winter has just written on X about the lenient punishment Chelsea have received.

Winter said there were 36 separate payments a total of £47.5M paid to players and agents. Winter quite rightly said they gained a sporting advantage by paying these agents and players, so there should be a sporting punishment ie points deductions.

Winter says these are serious offences and they were not only obvious and deliberate breaches of the rules but they also involved deception and concealment.

Winter goes on to cite the case of Luton who in 2008 received a 10-point deduction for irregularities in dealing with agents which is exactly what Chelsea have admitted too.

I wonder although it happened some years back would this come under the jurisdiction of the new Independent regulator.

Bent as a corkscrew.

But that is fine as they allegedly made a profit last year.

Any word of Burnley's compensation claim against Everton?

I wish they would feck off and join a European Super League, but not whilst staying in the Premier League. Just go away, and make loads more dodgy £££ in half-empty stadiums, never come back.

If they do, make them apply for North West Counties or the geographical equivalent.

Man City will get the same, maybe bigger fine and a suspended points deduction. In other words, a slap on the wrist! It really is disgraceful, has been for many a year now.

I’m beginning to really hate professional sport, especially footy!

The media does not represent the views of football supporters, it is beholden to the Premier League… will Sky even mention it?

This can only stop if voices are heard. Media representing fan opinion. Fans collectively calling this out.

We need a strong spokesperson. This is only going to get worse when the inevitable Man City fiasco comes to an unacceptable conclusion.

Now, if this is the Premier League's approach at this stage, I hate those clubs.

Fuck their European aspirations. We have nothing in common anymore. The league to which we both ostensibly share membership is actually a platform to promote their interests at the expense of ours.

Fuck them. I would accept a European Super League if it meant getting rid of them. Not hoping for injuries but I'm going dark on those fuckers for a long time.

Good point about the media. I noticed this story on BBC Sport. Been there 3 hours but no Have Your Say (HYS) as yet.

I assume they will have one, as football (Premier League especially) is far too popular to 'ignore'.

Though I reckon they will moderate it somewhat. Like they do with HYS' concerning The Hundred, ie, "bit controversial, don't let too many people complain" etc.

All the rest of the Premier League clubs should do something about this, this is just plain cheating. What chance have the rest of us got?

Premier League.. Corrupt As Fuck!

They expected Man City to get the same sort of verdict proving that the game is corrupt and protecting the Big 6 to carry on being successful.

No consistency, and probably a similar financial slap on the wrist for Man City.

Just seems the current Big 5 can do what they want but everyone else is held to different rules.

Ours was purely on accounting for payments towards the new stadium. No evidence we have benefited from a player perspective but yet two separate point deductions. Total joke.

Years of non-cooperation and hiding malpractice previously is more relevant, especially considering this was just one element of the operation which profited hugely on the pitch as a result.

How they have avoided PSR sanctions since Boehly took over is probably more annoying considering their previous. They should have been under sanctions and on probation.

Without question, they will now be working out how to cheat under the new regulations.

Let them play Liverpool every week?

I haven't seen Henry Winter's piece but it's great that he's speaking out.

However, if it's only a personal post on X and not a full blown article in his paper, that would be a lot more concerning.

I need to get my ducks in a row so I can get on with being outraged.

What I don't understand is how they can argue there is no sporting advantage in making illegal payments. Tottenham missed out on the signing of Hazard because presumably they didn't or weren't prepared to make illegal payments to players or agents, like Chelsea.

The consequence being, Chelsea had success with that player. And if that is the case for all of these players, then how is there no sporting advantage in this situation? But there is for Nottm Forest and Everton by going over an arbitrary spending limit.

How can Luton and Swindon get done over breaking contract terms like Chelsea, which resulted in points off for the minnow, but not for the Big 6 club?

I don't care that the new owners discovered Abromovich broke the rules. They need to be punished, such that all clubs know that, if you break the rules, then there is a severe punishment.

The football world seems like everywhere else. Authorities prepared to convict the little person but let the big fish get away with it.

Inside the Rage Machine -- BBC 2

There will be suspicion that brown paper bag payments haven't.

Time to see if the so-called, government regulators have any balls. The punishment does, in no way, fit the crime. The 14 teams should come together and challenge this and not let it pass.

Makes ya wonder...

That said, would the current owners or players be there if the Abramovich era cheating hadn't raised Chelsea's profile? I suspect not.

This is also the frustration with Man City. All their delaying means they will similarly try and act like their cheating involved people long since gone from the club.

In our case, reckless spending gets an immediate punishment. In theirs, criminal illegal payments and false accounting … slap on the wrist.

Looks like the backhander in the brown paper bags was the way to go, plus it sounds like it is still going on.

Without going over old ground too much. Reckless spending from us was £20M -- the same sum Usmanov wanted to secure the right to bid on the naming rights of the new ground. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has unearthed both of these accountancy "techniques"

Ours was a £20M breach and the purse strings cut for 4 years plus a points deduction. We cooperated fully and tried to adhere to the PSR rules but, in the end, the new ground costs somehow came into play and despite 4 years of restricted spending and nearly getting relegated twice, the Premier League tried their best to screw us over with a points deduction.

Chelsea was £47M of underhand dealing for some of the top players in Europe, so gaining them a sporting advantage, resulting in multiple trophy wins. Other clubs they beat to titles and cups should feel aggrieved.

A £10M fine means nothing to them, it's not a punishment or even a slap on the wrist.

Take away the trophy wins and give them a points deduction as a fair punishment.

West ham did a similar thing with tevez and mascrerano. Avoided relegation and screwed over sheff united I think. A fine was issued but sheff united suffered more.

With football being quite tribal not many will care about this come Saturday. Only us Forrest and maybe Leicester will be frustrated. Clubs wont rock the boat as the cash will keep coming in. It's not a sport anymore it's a business masquerading as a sport.

The new improved psr rules coming in will only reinforce the rules for the rich in the prem so much so that uefa are concerned which means Real, Barca, juve etc are worried that their cut of the pie will get smaller.

The game is rigged. It's only blind loyalty keeping fans involved.

Will they do anything about this disgusting handling of pure cheating for an advantage on the pitch?

It's like paying tax, there's those who can and those who do.

We also fully co-operated straight away compared to the penalty dished out to them.

And also, when you consider, didn't they go into administration for breaking rules? And I'm pretty sure they had penalties for youth breaches before that.

But no, our board will probably look at it and go "Oh, we were unlucky" -- instead of saying "That's just crap -- no other word for it!"

'And Chelsea still have to face a hearing over 74 Football Association charges, which is likely to be another hefty fine.'

So... more to come, or not

The Premier League are making a big thing of the punishment being so lenient was because Chelsea brought it to their attention, and were very helpful.

Sorry, whichever way this is dressed up, Chelsea knew they were breaking the rules and didn't do it once but on multiple occasions, so that should have meant a much sterner decision than a suspended ban.

George Orwell's quote definitely defines the FA and Premier League Authorities: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Think of the repercussions if we beat Spurs the last game of the season and relegate them, next season would be a nightmare.

Guessing Aunty Beeb doesn't want to rock the boat eh?

Whereas, they'd be all over it (encouraging 'fan responses' to castigate the club) if was us or another non Sly Six club. Just horrible.

You'd think something as fundamental to the integrity of the sport as this would be ripe for comments. But we all know the BBC has its own agenda on most things.

We were made an example of to deter others breaching PSR... what does this say?

Seems they are going light on the punishment knowing Man City's is massive and this sets a precedent, a benchmark.

City slapped wrist incoming!!!!

Saturday the ideal time to bring them out of retirement against Chelsea.

They stressed that sporting advantage had been gained. Both received points deductions, Everton originally 12 before some sense appeared via Appeal.

Chelsea and Man City have not been charged with PSR breaches. Chelsea have admitted to hidden, fraudulent, rule-breaking payments (half paid to unregistered agents) in acquiring top players, who made the difference in their wining trophies and receiving cash rewards that helped them sustain a trophy era.

Despite this, and note guilt is not in question, a fine is deemed sufficient, heavily influenced by mitigating co-operation (not to do so would have been very damning, the corruptions were leaking out through Cypriot sources).

Man City will receive a bigger fine, maybe even an imposed transfer embargo, if proven guilty, for non-cooperation.

Reflect on this for a moment. Breaching PSR rules marginally, with no real sporting advantage gained, received a points deduction verdict.

Fraud, corruption, breaching Premier League rules (not PSR), defrauding HMRC, receives a modest fine.

Proper crime really does pay.

I've just been reading a tweet from a journalist called Kieran Mcguire, and he highlights that one of the reasons Everton never received a fine was because they had a very rich owner, which meant that in their judgement they needed to give out something that was more significant than a monetary fine.

You couldn't make it up, unless you're part of a corrupt committee that definitely looks to protect some more than others, but now the cat is out the bag, they must be squirming that they never went back through their notes, from the time they punished Everton?

That makes it even more disgraceful. as it reduced our spending limit for the next 2 seasons

Makes ya wonder...

Didn't we also co-operate fully with the authorities, just have a different reckoning of how certain deals should be accounted for?

It's good that some journos are pointing to double standards but I doubt it will change the punishment.

If my memory serves me correctly, I think we were "caught out" because we argued that one loan was taken out for a particular purpose, when in fact it turned out it was used for something else.

Was it that we said a loan was taken out to help build the new stadium, when in fact it was used for another purpose?

I think it was the other way around.

It was because we couldn't prove the loan was specifically for the new stadium, that the independent commission would not accept it.

Just listened in on a podcast between Henry Winter and Christian Purslow.

Purslow worked for Chelsea for a couple of years and also was the CEO at Liverpool and Villa. Purslow at Chelsea was to oversee international developments so had nothing to do with transfer deals.

He said that the fact that the new ownership admitted to the irregularities was for their own protection as, if they had concealed this information when doing their due diligence, they would have been culpable.

Winter asked Purslow "Do you think there was a dereliction of duty by the Premier League? Purslow said, "Well, seeing Chelsea admitted these payments were concealed intentionally, it would have been hard for them to know this was happening."

But Purslow seemed to suggest that further investigation was needed. I presume what the new owners at Chelsea found was bogus payments paid to agents and players.

Talking of agents one of the agents involved in the payments was an agent who did quite a few of these deals and it's being suggested that he and his brother need investigating.

He was also the agent involved in the Isak transfer from Newcastle to Liverpool but there is no suggestion there was anything wrong in that transfer.

The podcast by Winter and Purslow is called Footyboardroom if anybody wants to listen.

Don't make too much noise, as you'll never know what skeletons exist...

Didn't we also cooperate fully with the authorities?

My memory says we most definitely did not cooperate initially. We vehemently denied any breach of PSR, and I believe the club put up a strong defence before the independent commission -- the very antithesis of 'exceptional cooperation'!!! And this then required a concerted prosecution by the Premier League's legal team.

When that didn't work, we changed strategy and admitted to a small breach but claimed four different mitigations -- all of which were rejected -- ending up with a larger breach for which they happily punished us.

I suspect part of our problem that is not much recogised goes back to the preceding years when the Premier League saw we were heading for some serious problems and tried to work with us to mitigate them. The fact that such cooperation had failed probably reflected very badly on the club and I imagine was extensively described to the Independent Commission by the Premier League.

I understand the practicality of offering it as an incentive but still think it's basically wrong that someone who is bang to rights and obviously going to be judged as guilty can get credit for not fighting the case against them.

Conversely, if you genuinely believe you have done nothing wrong you shouldn't get harsher punishment for defending your actions.

I don't know whether in our case we genuinely thought our interpretation of the rules was valid, or whether we were stupidly confident that the rules would be twisted for us as we thought they were for others.

A “breach“, or “illegality“?

The loan wasn't used for the intended / expressed purpose - i.e the new stadium build.

Ultimately Everton conceded they had not told the full story.

Everton had been asleep at the wheel, and could have avoided the action by selling players, the women's team, or I don't know any other assets via sale & lease back (eg, Chelsea hotels).

Chelsea (again) was concealment. The non-cooperation piece is a joke. They hid it for a decade, had huge success, and even managed to flip Hazard for a huge transfer gain from tainted money.

Everton hid it from the date of filing the accounts, to the point where the Premier League said “You bust the rules.” Non-cooperation angle is weak at best.