The Football Association are reviewing allegations Chelsea made illegal payments to the father of Andreas Christensen when they signed the defender from Brondby in 2012.
Documents first revealed by the Danish newspaper Politiken last November state Christensen’s father, Sten, was employed as a scout on the same day Chelsea signed the player. A Chelsea consultancy agreement said Sten was paid £11,400 per month, plus VAT, for four years, the final sum totalling more than £650,000. The contract began on the exact same date Chelsea signed Christensen into their academy – July 1, 2012.
When the allegations were first published in Politiken in November, they claimed that Sten remained in his job as a goalkeeper coach for Brondby and didn’t actually do any scouting work for Chelsea. It is not permitted for clubs to make payments to family members of minors and the Premier League has previously fined both Liverpool and Everton for breaches of such regulations and handed them youth transfer bans. A spokesman telling i: ‘The FA is aware of the allegations and we are reviewing them.’ The documents published by Politiken were obtained by Football Leaks.
The paper contacted Sten Christensen at the time and he replied: ‘It sounds like a story you have got from someone in Ukraine or something like that. I have no comment whatsoever. You’ll have to ask Chelsea about that.’ He added: ‘That is not something I want to discuss. That’s the way it is. If you want to use information hacked from Chelsea then go ahead.’ A Chelsea statement added: ‘We do not comment on speculation about confidential contracts or player-related cases.’
Christensen, 22, has played regularly in the Chelsea first-team over the past two seasons and has played 59 times in total for the Blues in all competitions. The review comes after Chelsea were handed a two-window transfer ban by FIFA following an investigation into the signing of under-18 players from orverseas. Part of the FIFA investigation focused on a £155,000 payment to the mother of Bertrand Traore in April 2011. £13,000 went to AJE Bobo-Dioulasso, the club she chaired. Traore joined Chelsea in 2013. Chelsea were fined £460,000 by FIFA but will appeal the decision.