He was found in breach of Premier League rule K5, which prohibited him from approaching Chelsea with a view to negotiating a transfer, without permission from Arsenal.

Chelsea were determined to have broken rule K3, forbidding them approaching Cole by any means while under contract. Cole’s deal still has two years left to run.

Mourinho was in breach of rule Q, governing managers’ conduct.

The Premier League acted following newspaper reports in January that Cole, Mourinho and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon met at the Royal Park Hotel at Lancaster Gate, London, launching an investigation seven days after the initial allegations.

Charges against Cole, Mourinho and Chelsea were made in March, with an independent commission hearing the case on May 17-18.

All parties have 14 days in which to appeal.

A statement from the Premier League confirmed that the chairman of the independent commission, Sir Phillip Otton, was continuing to take “statements of mitigation” with a view to delivering appropriate sanctions to Cole, Chelsea and Mourinho.

Details of punishments following the guilty verdicts were expected later today.

Chelsea’s ‘super agent’ Pini Zahavi was also alleged to have been at the Lancaster Gate meeting, as was Cole’s representative Jonathan Barnett.

However, they do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Premier League and therefore there could not be any imposition on them today, however the Premier League can pass on the independent commission’s findings to the Football Association.

The charges were laid on March 23, after the Premier League carried out initial investigations, with a view to seeing if there was a case for anyone to answer.

Mourinho led Chelsea to the Barclays Premiership title in his first season at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea seem likely to avoid the maximum penalty of being docked points, possibly from the start of next season, or a block on transfer activity this summer.

It appears more likely they will instead be fined – possibly up to £250,000 - with one of the biggest financial penalties ever handed out, but still relatively small change for billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.

Cole seems set to face a fine, which would be likely to place greater strain on his relations with Arsenal, while Mourinho could face a similar punishment.

The fines are expected to dwarf the Premier League’s existing record to Liverpool of £20,000 for making an illegal approach to Christian Ziege, while he was at Middlesbrough in 2000.

The Germany defender was fined £10,000, while Aston Villa were more recently warned and ordered to pay costs for making an illegal approach to James Beattie in 2004.

The record fine meted out to an English club currently stands at the £1.5million which Tottenham were ordered to pay after being found guilty of illegal payments to players in 1994.

Cole’s legal team had been understood to be considering a defence that players should be entitled to talk to other clubs at any time during their contracts.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had warned of “chaos” if they had succeeded.