Chelsea punisment ‘lenient’ – ex-Blues exec Purslow

Former Chelsea senior executive Christian Purslow believes the Premier League has been “way too generous” in its punishment of the club for making secret payments relating to transfers.

Chelsea were fined £10m and handed a suspended transfer ban after admitting making £47.5m in undisclosed payments to unregistered agents and third-parties between 2011 and 2018.

The fine is the largest ever imposed by the Premier League but the club avoided any sporting sanctions, such as a points deduction.

“I think this is the most serious thing to break in the Premier League for a long time,” Purslow said on The Football Boardroom podcast.

Purslow, a former managing director of Liverpool and Aston Villa chief executive, added: “I think the vast majority of people in the game… will view this as an extremely lenient and favourable outcome for Chelsea Football Club.

“The level of mitigation that has been applied here is way too generous, and in my opinion very inconsistent with previous regulatory cases and sanctions.”

Purslow was head of commercial activities at Chelsea between 2014 and 2017, but insisted he had “nothing to do with the playing side”.

Everton and Nottingham Forest received points deductions for breaking Premier League Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) in recent years but despite making “obvious and deliberate breaches” which “involved deception and concealment in relation to financial matters”, Chelsea were spared a sporting sanction.

When the punishment was announced Chelsea said: “From the outset of this process, the club has treated these matters with the utmost seriousness, providing full cooperation to all relevant regulators.”

Because the breaches came during former owner Roman Abramovich’s time in charge, and new owners BlueCo made voluntary disclosures and showed “exceptional co-operation”, that was viewed as enough mitigation to avoid more severe punishment.

“This is essentially a litany of offences related to how you conduct transfer business, so a transfer ban makes sense,” Purslow said.

“But to see that ban suspended in full, again, seems extremely lenient.

“That must really rankle with clubs like Everton and Forest who I don’t think have had much credit in the past where they have co-operated.”

The Premier League has previously stated, when handing Everton a points deduction, that “a financial penalty for a club that enjoys the support of a wealthy owner is not a sufficient penalty”.

That verdict also stated “the requirements of deterrence, vindication of compliant clubs, and the protection of the integrity of the sport demand a sporting sanction in the form of a points deduction”.

Chelsea signed players such as Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto’o, Willian, Ramires, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic as they won seven majors honours between 2011 and 2018, including two Premier League titles and the Champions League.

“Sporting sanctions first came into the frame as an acknowledgement that sometimes punishing with a fine just didn’t fit the crime,” Purslow added.

“In other words, when football clubs had gained meaningful football advantage, you needed to sanction with sporting penalty to compensate.