According to The Athletic, with Manchester City found guilty of nearly all allegations in the Premier League financial rules breach case by an independent commission, Chelsea's handling of financial issues inherited from the Abramovich era has once again drawn attention. The Athletic believes that BlueCo's decision to proactively disclose violations and cooperate fully with investigations after acquiring Chelsea helped the club avoid more severe consequences.

When BlueCo completed its acquisition of Chelsea in May 2022, concerning financial issues were discovered during the club's financial records review. The new owners set aside £100 million from the purchase price to cover "unforeseen liabilities" and proactively reported financial disclosure irregularities, undisclosed agent fees, and third-party investment issues to UEFA, the Premier League, and the FA.

All three organizations subsequently opened investigations. In September 2025, the FA charged Chelsea with 74 breaches spanning 2009 to 2022, a figure quickly compared to Manchester City's 115 charges.

However, The Athletic points out that there are fundamental differences in the nature of violations Chelsea and Manchester City face, and BlueCo's choice to cooperate rather than engage in prolonged legal battles with regulators has yielded significant results across investigations at all three levels.

In July 2023, Chelsea reached a settlement with UEFA, agreeing to pay a one-time fine of €10 million to resolve "inadequate financial reporting" issues for 2012-2019.

In March this year, the Premier League announced a settlement with Chelsea. The club was fined £10 million for breaches of financial reporting regulations and third-party investment rules, and received a one-season first-team transfer ban, which was suspended for two years.

In July this year, the FA proceedings concluded with penalties largely consistent with the Premier League: a £10 million fine and a one-season first-team transfer ban, suspended for two years. Additionally, the independent commission initially imposed a 6-point deduction, also suspended until the end of the 2026-27 season. However, Chelsea successfully appealed and had the points deduction overturned.

This means that as long as Chelsea complies with relevant regulations during the probationary period, the club will not actually have to enforce the transfer ban. The total fines from all three investigations are even less than Chelsea's spending on young winger Giovani Quenda from Sporting CP.

More importantly, these penalties currently have no direct negative impact on Enzo Maresca and his team.

The Premier League investigation involved 36 payments totaling over £47.5 million. These payments were made by third-party entities controlled by or linked to Abramovich to 12 individuals or business entities between 2011 and 2018, with final payments benefiting Chelsea but not disclosed to the Premier League.

The transfers affected by these violations included players such as Hazard, Willian, David Luiz, Ramires, Matic, Eto'o, and Schürrle. These players subsequently helped Chelsea win multiple titles, including the club's first Champions League trophy, two Premier League titles, and numerous other domestic and European cups.

The Athletic notes that BlueCo's natural advantage is that they were not the leadership during Abramovich's era. The departure of former Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck and director Marina Granovskaia just weeks after the takeover further reinforced the perception that new management had broken with the past.

However, BlueCo relied not only on leadership change; after proactively disclosing issues, they continued to provide comprehensive cooperation.

The FA independent commission's written decision stated that Chelsea provided an "unprecedented level of cooperation," submitted "a substantial volume of important evidence" to regulators, and facilitated interviews with current and former staff members.

At the Premier League investigation level, Chelsea also achieved a favorable outcome on a critical issue: the investigation concluded that the scale of undisclosed payments was insufficient for Chelsea to breach the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules in the relevant years.

Previously, Everton and Nottingham Forest were deducted points for similar violations, making this finding significant for Chelsea.

Furthermore, the Premier League did not assert that Chelsea gained sporting advantage through signing players like Hazard and Willian, and the FA ultimately did not use this as grounds for punishment.

However, the FA independent commission took a stricter view of the matter.

The three-member panel believed Chelsea's actions at that time were "extremely serious, unprecedented in scale, and entirely consistent with a prolonged culture of non-compliance." The commission also determined that the primary and overall motive for the club's actions was to gain sporting advantage, and Chelsea did indeed benefit from it.

The commission believed this advantage was reflected in Chelsea's ability to assemble a deeper squad than would have been possible under full compliance with regulations, and in competitors losing fair opportunity to compete for the players involved.

Based on this finding, the FA independent commission initially set a 15-point deduction as the baseline punishment. Subsequently, due to Chelsea's proactive disclosure and active cooperation with the investigation, the penalty was reduced to 10 points; it continued to decrease to 6 points because the club acknowledged relevant facts early, and was suspended until the end of the 2026-27 season. Finally, these 6 points were overturned during the appeals process.

The Athletic believes that BlueCo's approach created opportunities for mitigation at most stages of Chelsea's disciplinary process.

The article also notes that some of Chelsea's titles from the Abramovich era in the 2010s may face prolonged controversy due to these regulatory findings. However, these titles have not been stripped, and for most Chelsea fans, their significance may remain unchanged.

In contrast, Manchester City's disciplinary case with the Premier League remains ongoing. If the verdict against Manchester City is upheld through appeals, subsequent penalties could include fines, transfer bans, points deductions, relegation, expulsion from competitions, and even title stripping.

The Athletic believes that in this context, Chelsea's earlier approach becomes even more significant. While BlueCo's first four years leading Chelsea have been far from smooth, at least in resolving financial issues inherited from Abramovich, the club successfully avoided a potentially severe and prolonged regulatory crisis through proactive disclosure and full cooperation.

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