Chelsea accused of breaching Premier League rules to sign Andreas Christensen

There's been plenty of negative news surrounding Premier League clubs over the last few weeks with the majority of it surrounding the spending power of Manchester City, but today new allegations have surfaced around one of their rivals. Football Leaks are today claiming that Chelsea have their own mis-givings to answer for, with their acquisition of Andreas Christensen back in 2012 potentially breaking Premier League rules which could land them in some serious trouble. The Premier League and FIFA has strict rules regarding player recruitment at all ages, but Chelsea's move for Christensen has made the news as he was such a young age when he departed Denmark for West London.

This isn't the first time that Chelsea have made the headlines for poaching young talent, their capture of Gael Kakuta in 2007 saw them given a 2 year transfer ban in 2010 which they eventually managed to get lifted after reaching an agreement with his previous club Lens. And just a couple of days ago there were claims that they did something similar with former player Bertrand Traore, who's now at Lyon. He was first registered with the club back in 2014, just after his 18th birthday but reports claim that he was signed prior to him becoming an adult - something that breaches FIFA rules. The games governing body will be looking into all of the claims and should they be found guilty they could receive that two year ban after all..

When Chelsea won the race to sign Andreas Christensen back in 2012 the Blues firmly believed that they had captured one of the finest young centre-backs in the game. The then Brondby youngster was pursued by some of the biggest clubs in Europe but the West Londoners managed to convince him to move to England - but did they do it legally? Well Football Leaks claim that this isn't the case, with them accusing Chelsea of wrong-doing by making payments to his father in an attempt to get him to make the move to Stamford Bridge.

Their information shows that Christensen's father, Sten Christensen, was actually employed by Chelsea Football Club in 2012 when they were interested in signing his son. He was employed by the Blues as a 'scout', although he had no experience whatsoever in that position, meaning that Chelsea have broken Premier League rules. PL rules state that clubs prohibited to offer players and parents bribes in an attempt to get them to sign for them, so by Chelsea giving Sten a made up job and adding him to the clubs payroll they are indeed breaching them. The Premier League states: 'No club may lure or attempt to entice a player to sign a contract by offering him or any person directly or indirectly a benefit or payment.'

Whilst on the books and payroll of Chelsea, Sten Christensen was actually working day-in-day-out as a goalkeeping coach for Brondby. Football Leaks claimed to have secured documents which confirm Christensen's payment from Chelsea which show he was earning £11.4k a month for 'scouting' and despite him not even being in the country or having any experience in that field whatsoever which makes it even more bizarre that he's the highest-paid scout on that list. Sten Christensen has obviously denied these claims and says that his only job has been with Brondby.

The fact this isn't the first time Chelsea have been actively involved in controversial deals for young players makes these accusations incredibly damaging following the Gael Kakuta case. And with their deal for Bertrand Traore also making the news recently, there could be some worrying times ahead for the powers that be at the club - with a transfer ban a worrying possibility. Poaching young talent through bribing and illegal payments seems to be an increasingly common theme in world football and it's going to be interesting to see what comes from this case.

Information courtesy of Football Leaks & Politiken