Chelsea and Aston Villa have been fined €80m and €20m respectively for breaching Uefa’s financial fair play rules.
Chelsea were fined €31m, a figure that could rise to €91m if they do not sort out their finances.
Aston Villa were issued with an €11m fine, which can increase to €31m if they fail to sufficiently arrange their finances to ensure compliance with Uefa’s regulations.
It is likely that both clubs will face restrictions in the amount of players they can register for Uefa competitions.
Uefa stated that the “clubs agreed to reach intermediate annual targets, and to the application of conditional financial and sporting measures should these targets not be met (i.e. stricter restriction on the registration of new players on the list A and exclusion from the next UEFA club competitions for which they will qualify).”
The i Paper understands that further sanctions include docking points in group stages of competitions or even banning them from entering Uefa competitions.
The i Paper revealed last week that the two Premier League clubs were due to learn their fate this week and that they were expecting fines.
Both clubs passed the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules but were caught by Uefa’s regulations. As they both qualified for European competition – Chelsea the Champions League and Aston Villa the Europa League – they must comply with Uefa limits.
Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body launched a probe into the two clubs’ spending several months ago after it emerged that they were suspected to have breached.
For Premier League auditors, Chelsea were able to include the sale of the club’s women’s team to a company within the same ownership group – called Blueco 22 Midco Ltd – for £200m in their accounts, recording a pre-tax profit of £128.4m up to June 2024. Uefa, however, do not permit the practice.
Uefa’s cost control ratio system, meanwhile, allows clubs to spend only a certain percentage of revenues on wages and transfer fees. It was 80 percent during the period under examination – the 2023/24 accounts – and has since dropped to 70 percent.
Aston Villa’s wage bill was £252m, against revenue of £257.7m, in the club’s accounts.
Officials from both clubs have been locked in talks with Uefa about agreeing on a settlement.
The clubs have to show Uefa how they plan to avoid breaching the regulations in future and how they will ensure they will not exceed the limits again.
The Premier League is set to introduce cost control ratio rules, aligning with Uefa, but clubs voted to delay the implementation until at least the start of the 2025/26 season during a shareholders meeting.
