Chelsea could be facing a Premier League points deduction after leaked files revealed a series of illegal payments during Roman Abramovich’s tenure as club owner.
Abramovich sold the English powerhouse to American businessman Todd Boehly in 2023 for a fee of £4.25bn ($A7.4 billion) but now issues have arisen after a series of payments were uncovered.
These payments, according to The Guardian, may be in breach of financial fair play rules with funds being “routed through offshore vehicles belonging to Abramovich”.
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The investigation has uncovered payments made to potentially benefit Chelsea, with former winger Eden Hazard reportedly being one beneficiary.
An associate of former manager Antonio Conte also reporting was handed funds while other payments have reportedly been linked to the purchase of both Willian and Samuel Eto’o in the past.
The Premier League is reportedly investigating Chelsea’s finances after Boehly and the club’s new owners voluntarily submitted their books after it came to light “incomplete financial information” had been provided by Abramovich.
Chelsea have also already been fined £8.6m regarding the admission, with the full extent of financial dealings revealed as a part of the Cyprus Confidential investigation.
The international investigation uncovered an Abramovich-owned company named Conibair Holdings signed an agreement with Federico Pastorello, an agent with connections to Conte.
The company signed an agreement to pay £10m to acquire a majority stake in Excellence Investment Fund before Conte signed a new £9.6m-a-year contract later that same day.
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Hazard’s move, who signed in a £35m deal from French-club Lille in 2012, has also come under the microscope after it was revealed his agent John Bico-Penaque required £6m in commission to complete the deal.
In March 2013, another company owned by Abramovich reportedly agreed to pay that fee to a Dubai-based company called Gulf Value FZE for ‘advisory’ services.
Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala also agreed to sell both Willian and Eto’o to Chelsea in 2013, with the transfers now being flagged as potentially in breach of financial fair play rulings.
On top of their respective transfer fees, payments were reportedly made to ‘Russian entities’ with no suggestions either players knew of the dealings.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire told The Guardian that Chelsea could be facing “financial” sanctions or a points deduction.
“The latter is more likely as any commission investigating a club’s circumstances will want to put out a deterrent that dissuades others from repeating such behaviour,” he said.
