The Athletic FC

Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Ayo, Akim Oler.

Chelsea have been handed a 10 million pound fine

and also handed a suspended transfer van

for making secret payments in relation to transfers.

So does the punishment fit the crime?

And what president does this set for future cases?

And I'm talking about Manchester City's 150 charging.

All right.

And with us today, we've got our Chelsea correspondent, Simon Johnson.

We've also got our senior news reporter, Matt Slater, as well. Matt, this story has you

written all over it. I heard about it on Monday and I was like, we need to get Matt on. So,

let's talk about it. Let's talk about the transfer ban that's been handed to Chelsea, but most

of all as well, the £10 million fine. Yeah, I'm all about secret payments, aren't I? That's,

that's me all over. That's why you thought of me. Well, I think most of our listeners and viewers

will have gathered that Chelsea have been slapped on the wrist this week. They've actually

been fined 10.75 million. That's important to sort of set out at the beginning because I think there are two parts to this.

The first is, as framed in your question, they have been fined $10 million by the Premier League

for a number of unreported payments.

The total of £47.5 pounds, I think, to 36 different entities

between 2011 and 2018. And these are related to a number of high profile transfers.

These are under the table payments to agents and offshore entities to kind of grease the wheels

...