From bad to worse for Chelsea as Premier League begin huge financial investigation

Upon completion of their Chelsea takeover in 2022, the Todd Boehly-led consortium self-reported some financial irregularities to UEFA dating back to Roman Abramovich’s time at the helm.

As a result, UEFA fined Chelsea £8.6m for, "submitting incomplete financial information" during the period between 2012 and 2019

Unfortunately for Chelsea, the Premier League operates as a separate body to UEFA and has its own investigation team now looking into the “financial irregularities” that occurred under the previous ownership.

According to the Daily Mail, during the Abramovich era, Chelsea are being investigated for suspicious payments to offshore accounts which would circumvent Financial Fair Play rules.

Per the Daily Mail’s reporting, the investigation is set to focus particularly on the signing of Danish defender Andreas Christensen.

Danish newspaper, Politiken, reported in 2018, that as part of the deal to sign the young defender from Brondby back in 2012, Chelsea paid Adreas’ father to be a scout for Chelsea, even whilst he was still employed at Brondy as a coach. The figures amounted to £650,000, huge sums for a regional scout working part-time…

Financial Fair Play was created in an attempt to stop wealthy individuals pumping money into football clubs giving them an unfair advantage, and whilst it hasn’t been overly successful, Chelsea’s potential disregard for the rules shows a deliberate attempt to contravene the rules in their favour by reporting incorrect figures on their financial statements.

With Chelsea already found guilty by UEFA, it would seem a slam-dunk case for the Premier League to make an example of Chelsea. According to reports the West London club could face another huge fine as well as a potential points deduction.

So far there has been no comment from either Chelsea or the Premier League as the investigation is just beginning.