Chelsea owners feared punishment from Abramovich era so much they held back £150m of takeover price to pay off fines

CHELSEA owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali held back a staggering £150m of their purchase price for the club to cover potential fines relating to the Roman Abramovich reign.

Premier League chiefs are investigating alleged breaches of financial rules committed during the Russian’s 20 year Stamford Bridge era.

PA

BlueCo held back £150million to cover potential fines from the Abramovich regime[/caption]

And in the club’s latest financial accounts, which included losses of more than £90m last season, the scale of the potential costs feared by the new American owners was made clear.

Chelsea were fined £8.6m by Uefa after admitting to filing incomplete financial information between 2012 and 2019.

That included allegations of offshore payments from Abramovich-related parties surrounding the signings of players including Willian, Samuel Eto’o and Eden Hazard.

The payments were flagged up by the club’s new owners last year, with Prem bosses launching their own investigation in November.

But with the investigation still continuing – there are expectations of charges being brought before the end of the season – the extent of the feared potential cost has become clear.

In a statement accompanying the latest financial figures, Chelsea’s owners, the investment company Blue Co, confirmed the £150m “holdback” sum.

Blue Co said: “The holdback reduction amount is defined as an amount of all losses incurred by any member of the Group resulting from any proceeding in relation to events which took place before the acquisition date, up to the value of £150m.

“The Group self-reported to relevant football authorities’ certain legal matters concerning historical football transactions.

“The directors acknowledge the ongoing review by the football authorities in relation to these matters. “Depending on the outcome, there could be future liabilities that cannot be quantified as at the date of these financial statements.”

While the Blue Co group – a consortium of a number of Chelsea-related companies – announced pre-tax losses of £678.1m, the club lost £90.1m – down from £121.4m the previous season.

But that was despite including the £60m received from Manchester United for Mason Mount, a sum actually agreed on June 30.

In total, according to the figures, Chelsea – whose income rose from £481.3m to £512.5m – had a wage bill of £441.9m and amortisation and depreciation costs of £567.5m.

And this season, Chelsea confirmed the club had spent a further £454.8m on adding to Mauricio Pochettino’s squad, while making £48.2m in profit from the sale of 10 players.

With no Champions League football this season or next term, that adds up to a minimum £160m black hole in Chelsea’s two year finances.

It adds to the need for sales before the May 31 cut-off date for this season in order to try to meet the Profitability and Sustainability Rules limits of £105m in allowable losses over three seasons.