Chelsea and Aston Villa hit with staggering fines for breaching UEFA’s financial rules

By Danielle Desouza

Chelsea and Aston Villa have both been fined for breaching UEFA’s financial sustainability regulations, European football’s governing body has announced.

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The Blues have been thumped with a £17.3m penalty for failing to comply with UEFA’s football earnings rule, with a further £51.2m payable if they do not achieve compliance inside the next four years.

They have also been hit with a £9.5m rule for breaking squad cost rules which state you cannot pay more than 80% on players, contracts and agent costs.

They have also agreed to "a restriction on the registration of new players on their list A for UEFA club competitions".

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A Chelsea spokesperson said: "Chelsea FC has entered into a settlement agreement with UEFA concerning a break-even deficit reported by the club under UEFA’s Financial Sustainability Regulations covering the financial years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.

"The club has also agreed to pay a fine as a result of the club’s squad cost ratio in the 2024 reporting year being between 80 per cent and 90 per cent.

"The club has worked closely and transparently with UEFA to provide a full and detailed breakdown of its financial reporting, which indicates that the financial performance of the club is on a strong upwards trajectory.

"Chelsea FC greatly values its relationship with UEFA and considered it important to bring this matter to a swift conclusion by entering into a settlement agreement."

Villa have been ordered to pay £4.3m, with a further £12.9m conditional on compliance in a three-year period, and £5.2m for the same two offences - with the penalties reflecting the severity of the breaches.

They have also agreed a similar restriction on player registrations.

The punishments have been handed down by the first chamber of UEFA’s club financial control body (CFCB) following an analysis of the 2023 and 2024 financial years.

"In assessing the clubs’ compliance with the football earnings rule, the CFCB placed particular attention on transactions involving the sale of tangible or intangible assets, the exchange of players (so called ‘swaps’) and the transfers of players between related parties," the CFCB said in a statement.

"Clubs were required to perform adjustments, as profits from such transactions cannot be recognised as relevant income according to the UEFA club licensing and financial sustainability regulations – edition 2024."

Over the past few months, both clubs have made headlines for selling their women’s teams to their respective parent companies to try and negotiate spending restrictions.