Chelsea caught up in international fraud scheme targeting young footballers
Fraudsters impersonating Chelsea officials have been swindling money out of aspiring footballers and their families with bogus promises of trials for the club.
Scammers have targeted young players using social media accounts and websites that purport to be official Chelsea platforms running scouting programmes around the world.
Blues chiefs have now taken the step of issuing a public warning about the sham scheme and outlining how to spot the fake invitations to try out for the Premier League outfit.
“We are aware that fraudsters have been impersonating the club and individual members of our staff in an attempt to extract payment for aspiring junior players to take part in football trials or private training sessions,” Chelsea said.
“This has involved both fake social media accounts naming club officials and emails, with links to websites for booking soccer school trials. These websites are designed to impersonate official club media including the Chelsea Foundation’s official soccer schools website, and may claim to run events in countries around the world.
“Please exercise caution before interacting with or making payment to anything that fits this description. Chelsea Football Club and our global youth system at all levels will never ask for money in connection with anything that refers to a trials process.”
The club added that they do not hold open trials for its boys’ and mens’ teams, and that any trials for the women’s teams will appear on its official website – and never involve payment.
Chelsea also said that they never contact aspiring players or their families via social media, nor use the personal email accounts of club coaches or staff to offer trials.
“Chelsea FC is committed to safeguarding our wide community and takes this problem extremely seriously,” they said.
“We continue to monitor this situation and work towards the eradication of these online scams.”