Defending world champions, Chelsea, have been fined £10m and handed a suspended transfer ban after admitting making £47m in secret payments to unregistered agents and third-parties over transfers between 2011 and 2018.

The £10m fine is the largest ever imposed by the Premier League, topping the £5.5m fine given to West Ham United in 2007 over the signings of Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez.

It was learnt that Blues avoided a sporting sanction, such as a points deduction, for what the Premier League called “voluntarily self-reporting…historical breaches of rules”.

 Chelsea also received an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban and a £750,000 fine over the registration of academy players between 2019 and 2022.

The Premier League’s report named a number of transfers related to the unregistered payments, including those of Eden Hazard, Samuel Eto’o, Willian, Ramires, David Luiz, Andre Schurrle and Nemanja Matic.

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There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of those players.

Payments to representatives of another four players are detailed. But their names have been redacted in the report. No reasons have yet been given for them not being made public.

The club accepted the charges, which occurred under Roman Abramovich’s ownership.

The Premier League said “undisclosed payments by third parties associated with the club were made to players, unregistered agents and other third parties” for the “benefit or Chelsea“.

The Premier League added that the £10m fine would have been £20m, but was reduced by 50% on account of Chelsea’s proactive self-reporting and co-operation with the process.

The Premier League said The Blue would not have breached its Profitability and Sustainability rules during the applicable seasons, even if the payments had been registered and it therefore did not deem a points deduction to be an appropriate punishment.