Chelsea believe they know what their punishment will be after being charged 74 times by the FA

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The verdict for Chelsea’s 74 FA charges is approaching, and the club think they know what the result will be.

The charges stem from breaches of agent regulations and third-party investment in players during the reign of Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea’s saving grace in this matter is that BlueCo self-reported these offences at the time when they were preparing to take over.

Todd Boehly has hired top accountants to ensure the damage to the club is minimised, and as we get closer to finding out the consequences of these charges, Chelsea executives are confident about what the result will be.

Chelsea expect a financial penalty as punishment

Appearing on the London Is Blue podcast, Chelsea correspondent Matt Law gave us some insight into the expectations regarding the FA charges.

Chelsea had until the 19th of September to appeal the charges, something they wouldn’t have had to consider as it was the club itself that alerted the FA.

Law says: “They won’t have said anything basically. They’ll have just notified the FA to go ahead with the case because there’s not going to be an appeal. You can’t really appeal something you’ve self-reported.”

As for what the outcome will be: “Chelsea hope and believe that that will result in a financial penalty rather than sporting sanctions because A, they’ve self-reported and helped, and B, it was done under a different ownership. It does go to an independent panel, though.”

A sporting sanction such as a points deduction would be extremely harsh given the circumstances, and it seems the Blues aren’t expecting anything of the sort.

That should be the last of the Abramovich skeletons

Roman Abramovich was an eccentric owner, to put it mildly. He became the face of Chelsea during his time at the helm, heavily involved in the running of the club.

The Russian oligarch was sanctioned by the British government for political reasons and was forced to sell in 2022.

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Aware of some of the dodgy dealings that were happening under his watch, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital negotiated £100 million off the purchase price to account for any skeletons left in the Chelsea closet.

But it’s been quite some time now since the takeover, and the new owners clearly did their due diligence in investigating potentially actionable breaches. With luck, that will be the last of the Abramovich-related drama at the club.