'They Have Admitted It' - Borson: Chelsea could land 'Very Big' penalty after dramatic twist

Chelsea could land a “very big” penalty for their admitted financial breaches during Roman Abramovich’s reign.

That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the west London club are likely to receive substantial mitigation for their admission, but their punishment could be more than just transfer bans.

Chelsea revealed during BlueCo’s takeover from Abramovich in May 2022 that they had discovered “incomplete financial information” had been submitted to the football authorities between 2012 and 2019.

The London giants then reported themselves to the Premier League, Uefa and The FA, leading to an investigation into the matter taking place.

Chelsea reached an £8.7million settlement with Uefa in July 2023 due to the governing body having a statute of limitations that meant it was able to look back only as far as the 2018-19 season – something the Premier League has no such restriction on.

Speaking to talkSPORT on 13 August, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters revealed the investigation is now “reaching a conclusion”.

Chelsea won’t face long hearing after admitting breaches

Borson revealed Chelsea’s admission means there won’t be a long hearing to decide the outcome and it will be purely about sentencing.

“I think those breaches are very serious and they are quite different from the City case in that they are admitted,” Borson told Football Insider.

“We don’t know the full extent of everything Chelsea have admitted and brought to the attention of the Premier League at the same time they brought it to the attention of Uefa.

“We also don’t know whether there are more things that have been discovered since because there was a whole load of transactions that were uncovered as part of the Cyprus Papers, which was another leak that came after Chelsea had self-reported.

“It may be that there’s a combination of admitted breaches and a whole load of additional breaches that have been discovered since.

“But either way, the conduct is admitted by Chelsea and, therefore, the charges will be potentially laid against Chelsea, but there won’t need to be a big long hearing.

“The hearing will simply be a case of considering aggravating factors and mitigation to a sentencing and a sanction.

“They won’t need to effectively prove their case because it will be similar to a criminal case, where somebody pleads guilty and the hearing is just about sentencing. I think it looks very serious.

“If the reporting of what they have admitted is correct and it seems to be, effectively what has happened over a number of years is Chelsea have signed a number of players in competitive situations with other clubs and didn’t disclose the truth about those transactions either in their accounts or in submissions to the league.

“That’s a pretty serious allegation and it’s admitted by Chelsea. That’s the problem for Chelsea is they have admitted it.

“They will get a very big mitigation for the admission, probably something like 30-40 per cent, so that’s the positive for Chelsea.

“But the seriousness of it means the penalties could be very big and it may not just be transfer bans or financial.”

In other news, Chelsea will accept £20m defender bid as Aston Villa swoop.

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