Chelsea Football Club has been charged by the Football Association with breaches of regulations. Precisely, 74 charges, that happened between 2009 and 2022, related to investments from third parties and intermediaries, during the years where the club was owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
The FA says these charges primarily relate to events which occurred between the 2010/11 to 2015/16 playing seasons, specifically "Regulations J1 and C2 of The FA Football Agents Regulations, Regulations A2 and A3 of The FA Regulations on Working with Intermediaries, and Regulations A1 and B3 of The FA Third Party Investment in Players Regulations".
The FA says Chelsea has until September 19 to respond to the charges, but it took minutes for Chelsea to respond, and confirm that those matters are reaching a conclusion and were, in fact, self-reported by Chelsea when the current owners completed the purchase of the club in May 2022 and found "potentially incomplete financial reporting concerning historical transactions and other potential breaches of FA rules".
"The club has demonstrated unprecedented transparency during this process, including by giving comprehensive access to the club's files and historical data", Chelsea's statement read.