UEFA's Club Financial Control Board (CFCB) has just announced a penalty for a series of teams, based on financial violations in the 2024-2025 season.
In the Premier League, Chelsea and Aston Villa are the two representatives mentioned. In terms of income, Chelsea were fined 20 million Euros, Villa were fined 5 million Euros. In terms of cost for the first team, the figures are 11 million and 6 million Euros respectively.
Chelsea were fined a total of €31 million and Aston Villa €11 million. The Blues' penalty is the highest in the Premier League in particular and in Europe in general during the recent "sweep" by CFCB.
Both Chelsea and Aston Villa were fined because the CFCB discovered they had spent more than 80% of their revenue on fees for first-team players. After this penalty, Chelsea and Villa will be limited to the amount of money that can be spent on players in UEFA's "Group A". In addition, they must maintain a positive level of revenue after spending on the squad.
In other tournaments in Europe, Barcelona have been fined 15 million Euros. Olympique Lyon are numbered 12.5 million, Besiktas (900,000 Euro), Panathinaikos (400,000 Euro) and Hajduk Split (300,000 Euro).
To solve the growing costs, Chelsea and Aston Villa have sold the ownership of women's teams to their own corporations, BlueCo and V Sports, respectively. This action has helped Chelsea and Villa temporarily avoid violating the Premier League's profit-taking and sustainability regulations (PSR) but cannot be resolved by UEFA. The highest football management agency in Europe does not allow the sale of tangible assets or "sister" football teams to be counted in the loss deduction.
As for Chelsea and Villa, both teams have shown quite calm moves in the face of these sanctions. As for the Villa Park team, they do not think that CFCB's penalty is an obstacle for them to compete in the European Cup next season. Meanwhile, Chelsea's owners even said that the club has cooperated very urgently with UEFA to be able to make a quick conclusion on this issue.
This is the second time the CFCB has imposed a series of sanctions targeting clubs following allegations of financial violations. Previously, in September 2022, UEFA accused 8 clubs of violating the Financial Fairness Act (FFP), including Ligue 1 champion Paris Saint-Germain. PSG were fined €10 million at the time, a small sum for the club, but it was UEFA's first warning, forcing the other sides to be cautious.
After the 2021-2022 season, Chelsea was "taken into target" by the CFCB and have now been fined. 31 million Euros is a big amount of money in the context of The Blues being tightly regulated in spending as at present, if they are not careful, they may not be transferred in the near future.
