Aston Villa are in talks with UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) after breaching the governing body’s Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) rules during last season’s European campaign, per the Guardian.
Under UEFA rules, clubs competing in Europe must keep spending on player wages and transfer fees to 80 percent of revenue. That figure has been reduced to 70% this season.
Villa recently published their accounts, showing a wage bill of £252 million and revenue of £257.7m.
Player costs exceeded the SCR threshold even without including non-football staff wages in the calculation.
A Deloitte financial report in January stated that Villa’s wages-to-revenue ratio was 96% in the 2023/24 season.
Villa did not publicly address the breach, but a note in their financial report referenced compliance with the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules, with no mention of UEFA.
The CFCB will enforce a punishment, most likely a financial settlement. They may also impose a controlled spending plan on the Villains.
Villa were previously fined £52,000 for late submission of accounts and could now face stiffer sanctions if they fail to adhere to new terms.
Even though Villa are unlikely to face immediate heavy penalties, the club may be forced to trim its wage bill or raise funds via player sales to avoid further violations.
Villa sold Douglas Luiz, Omari Kellyman, and Tim Iroegbunam last summer, bringing in nearly £70m to meet Premier League rules.
Intriguingly, the Premier League considered adopting SCR for next season but with an 85% limit.
It was still not high enough for Villa, so they wrote to other clubs asking to raise it to 90%, but the proposal did not gain traction.
Premier League clubs only postponed SCR for another year because of the legal battles Manchester City and the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) have waged against the financial rule.
