Reports coming in from West London via British tabloid The Times claims that Chelsea reported themselves to the Premier League board for financial impropriety.
The club, which was owned by Russian billionaire businessman and politician Roman Abramovich for 19 years until 2022, was revealed to have made a bunch of payments into offshore accounts.
The new ownership under Todd Boehly spotted this and decided to report it to the league board, who have launched an investigation into the spending at the time.
If found guilty of financial impropriety, the Blues could be docked points at the start of the season, handing them a negative which they have to work against ti be able to reclaim their place in the top six for the purpose of returning to European competition.
The payments, which were made during Abramovich’s era as owner, were reportedly paid into six offshore accounts and one belonging to a player’s family. The new ownership noted that these accounts are not linked to Chelsea in any way and did not get included in any of the club’s financial reports.
They alerted the league board, UEFA and the FA to this. All of this happened during the takeover of the club. They also paid a €10 million fine to UEFA for “incomplete financial reporting”.
Still, despite this being a thing of the past with the new owners believing they were coming to start on a clean slate, their team could suffer for it on the pitch.
However, the option of paying another fine is there and it is one that they hope will be explored as the points deduction will cost them the funds to be earned from playing in Europe.
Also, payments made to Sten Christensen, the father of former Blues defender Andreas Christensen, will be investigated.
Chelsea reportedly employed Sten Christensen as a scout after signing his son to their team years ago. However, the man was still on the books as a goalkeeper coach for Danish club Brøndby IF while receiving payments totalling £656,640 in four years (VAT included).
In that time, he was not found to be in the books of Chelsea as an official scout, which made the payments suspect.
Chelsea’s new ownership are coming to overhaul the team and this act of theirs could mean that they truly intend to start on a clean slate. The date of the presentation of the reports of the investigation are unknown.
It is also believed that the possible points to be deducted will be similar to what Juventus were docked in the Serie A last season – 15 points.
