How Chelsea avoided sporting sanctions for numerous violations and will it be the same with Manchester...

If you listen closely, you can hear the clinking of wine glasses in celebration in Chelsea's executive offices. It's a truly remarkable result for the London club, given the extent of the wrongdoing — financial manipulation, dubious deals, cheating, you name it — that the FA has dealt with. In the end, it all ended with only a fine of £10 million ($13.4 million). There will be no withdrawal of points for secret payments from the days of Roman Abramovich. It is these schemes, paradoxically enough, that at one time helped Chelsea to find themselves in a position where £10 million at Stamford Bridge is a sum that can be given away and overlooked. After all, if you are going to punish such a giant worth £2.5 billion, then the best way is to fine him an amount commensurate with the salary of one first-team player per season. Or even less than the compensation that Liam Rosenor is rumored to have received after being fired as head coach after only three months in the job. This is perhaps the biggest irony of the story, when you compare Chelsea's punishment with, for example, the sanctions against Everton for overspending and breaching the EPL's Profit and Sustainability (PSR) rules. You may remember that in the 2023/24 season, Everton were deducted 10 points, and after an appeal the penalty was reduced to six. Later that season, the club received a separate penalty in the form of another minus two points. Nottingham Forest, in turn, were deprived of four points. As a result, both teams found themselves one step away from relegation — and such a scenario would have cost them significantly more than £10 million. So let's take a look at exactly what Chelsea did to receive 74 disciplinary charges, and decide for yourself how serious those offenses were compared to the cases of clubs who, interestingly enough, are not considered part of the Premier League's notional 'big six'. The FA's decision expressly stated that there was clear evidence that Chelsea had deliberately circumvented the established system. According to the association, this "shows a shameful and arrogant disregard for the rules of the game" and caused significant damage to the reputation of football and Chelsea itself. Examining the relevant documents, among other things, reminds us that the transfer of Eden Hazard from Lille was only one episode in a 13-year period of repeated violations — from 2009 to 2022. In those years, Chelsea made unofficial payments to unofficial agents for Abramovich. For many Chelsea fans, Hazard will forever remain one of the most talented footballers Stamford Bridge has seen. Willian, who is also on the list of disciplinary charges, was also far from the last player. You may remember Ramirez's goal at the Camp Nou that helped Chelsea past Barcelona and into the 2012 Champions League final. Nemanja Matic was another one who regularly helped the Londoners win trophies. David Luiz, Samuel Eto'o, Andre Schurrle - all these footballers contributed to the success of Chelsea in the years when various intermediaries and dealers received money for their services. A total of £47m was paid out: 44 transactions involving 32 footballers, 18 of whom were minors. It is important to clarify: none of these football players did anything wrong. It is also worth remembering that it was Chelsea of ​​today who discovered these irregularities during a comprehensive review of the club in 2022, when BlueCo bought it. For this, the BlueCo consortium certainly deserves some credit, and therefore some leniency. His managers decided from the outset that in the long term it would be better to hand over all materials to law enforcement and football authorities and fully cooperate with the investigation. And it's hard to argue with that. At the same time, it is amazing to see how profitable this position turned out to be for them in the end. As it turned out, the fine was originally £26m. It was then reduced by a third to £17.25m, due to the fact that "Chelsea" went to the relevant authorities themselves, rather than choosing the alternative path: to cover up the violation and thereby potentially make the situation much worse. After that, another third was deducted from the amount, and the fine was reduced to £11.4 million. The reason was that the club immediately pleaded guilty to all 74 charges. In the end, the amount was reduced again to £10 million due to fines that turned out to have been previously imposed. It is hard to imagine a court in any country agreeing to reduce the sentence by almost two-thirds in this way. But the football world lives by different rules. In fact, the FA forgave Chelsea almost £15 million. The Premier League has already fined Londoners £10.75 million, and three years ago UEFA fined £8.6 million. So the total amount looks like