Chelsea transfer news: Christian Purslow hits out at Premier League for not punishing Blues with outright ban

Former Chelsea senior executive Christian Purslow has criticised the Premier League for not handing the Blues a lengthy transfer ban.

On Monday, it was announced that Chelsea had been handed a £10.75m fine, a suspended transfer ban and prevented from signing academy players for a period of nine months, a consequence of making £47.5m in undisclosed payments to unregistered agents and third-parties during the Roman Abramovich era between 2011 and 2018.

Those illegal payments hugely benefitted Chelsea when signing the likes of Eden Hazard, Willian, Ramires and David Luiz during the aforementioned period.

Despite receiving a Premier League record fine, it has been widely perceived that Chelsea should have been given a far stronger punishment for what were deliberate acts that breached regulations on a wide scale.

Clubs such as Everton and Nottingham Forest have recently received points deductions for breaching Profit and Sustainability regulations, the argument being that their misdemeanours were far less severe than those of Chelsea's.

Purslow describes Chelsea breaches as 'most serious thing in Premier League for a long time'

While Purslow was employed by Chelsea between 2014 and 2017, he says that he "had nothing to do with the playing side".

Speaking in an interview with The Football Boardroom podcast, Purslow was heavily critical of the decision to not place sporting sanctions on Chelsea.

He said: "I think this is the most serious thing to break in the Premier League for a long time. 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, who has also worked for Liverpool and Aston Villa, added: "Sporting sanctions first came into the frame as an acknowledgement that sometimes punishing with a fine just didn't fit the crime.

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

"It is blindingly obvious that sporting benefits were attained through this transfer activity."

Chelsea under fire on and off the pitch

On the back of losing 3-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday night, Chelsea can expect a hostile reception from Everton when they travel to the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday evening.

In February 2024, Everton needed to win an appeal to reduce a 10-point deduction for breaching PSR regulations to six points.

Chelsea may have avoided outright transfer bans and points penalties, but it will not help Liam Rosenior and his players when they take to the pitch on Merseyside.