Chelsea fans would have accepted points deduction as ‘surprising’ punishment analysed
Chelsea fans would have accepted the club being deducted points following their financial breaches.
That is according to former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider he has been left “surprised” by the Blues’ punishment.
Chelsea have been handed a £10million fine and a suspended transfer ban after admitting to making £47m worth of secret payments to agents and third-parties linked to deals between 2011 and 2018 when Roman Abramovich was in charge.
The London giants also received an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban and a further £750,000 fine due to offences committed between 2019 and 2022.
However, Chelsea avoided a sporting penalty, which could have been a points deduction.
Why Chelsea should have landed points deduction
Chelsea’s secret payments were made around the transfers of Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto’o, Willian, Ramires, David Luiz, Andre Schurrle and Nemanja Matic.
The transactions were discovered during BlueCo’s takeover from Abramovich in 2022, leading to the club self-reporting themselves to the Premier League, Uefa and the FA.
| Chelsea signings | Transfer fee |
| Eden Hazard | £32m |
| Samuel Eto’o | Free transfer |
| Willian | £32m |
| Ramires | £18m |
| David Luiz (2011) | £21m |
| David Luiz (2016) | £30m |
| Andre Schurrle | £18m |
| Nemanja Matic | £21m |
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson discussed whether Chelsea should have landed a points deduction.
“The bottom line to me is it's very clearly either a sporting advantage because you take the view that those players may not have signed for the club and may have gone elsewhere and therefore there may not have been that advantage that they had both in terms of the players at the time and also the consequences of the sales of those players afterwards,” said Borson.
“Either you take that view or the alternative is you just punish them for an egregious breach. I don't really think it matters. I think in either scenario, this is worth points. I think a lot of Chelsea fans would accept that as well.
“They might not like it, but they would accept that in the context of the punishments that have been handed out to teams like Nottingham Forest, Everton and Leicester City, and the sorts of punishments that we would expect from Manchester City if they're found liable for these breaches, everybody would expect that they mean points, so therefore it's a surprise.”
Why Chelsea punishment is 'surprising'
Borson admitted his surprise around Chelsea's penalty and the FA's approach to the situation.
“I'm surprised that people didn't expect it, and I'm super surprised that the guidance that's been pushed out from the FA is that the FA will also only go for pounds and pence,” said Borson.
“There's this big point about the deterrent factor of these punishments, and a lot is made of the fact that this is a new regime. But let's be clear, in the Everton case, it was made very clear that the wealth of an owner cuts across what the penalty should be and what the sanction should be.
“In that case, it was made clear by the commission that where you have a very wealthy owner, cash fines are unlikely to suffice. Well, Everton had a very wealthy owner.”
Everton were deducted eight points for two separate profit and sustainability (PSR) breaches, while Nottingham Forest were docked four points and Leicester City are appealing their recent six-point penalty.