Protecting against scams targeting young players
From the official Chelsea FC website:
Chelsea Football Club is alerting young footballers and their parents or carers to a risk posed by fake offers linked to our Academy.
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. 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.
Our Academy for male players does not hold open trials and information about trials for the Chelsea FC Women’s Academy is only carried on our official website, www.chelseafc.com, with no payment or bank details ever requested.
We will never reach out directly to young players and their families or carers via social media platforms, or use personal email addresses from coaches, scouts or other staff to invite anyone to a trial.
Chelsea FC is committed to safeguarding our wide community and takes this problem extremely seriously. We continue to monitor this situation and work towards the eradication of these online scams but if you wish to contact the club regarding this matter, report any suspected fraudulent activity, or check whether any communication you receive is genuine, please do so by contacting our general club enquiries via the dropdown menu on the Contact Us page or by directly emailing enquiries@chelseafc.com
‘Chelsea Supporters Group’ can also be found on Twitter and Facebook
