Chelsea hit with record fine for breaking the rules but should be so much more | OneFootball

Chelsea have been hit by a record fine from UEFA for breaking its financial rules.

The Stamford Bridge club fined £27million, with the threat of having to pay a further £51.8million if they do not meet future financial targets agreed with UEFA.

Aston Villa have also been fined for breaking the financial rules, the figure they have to pay is £9.5million, with then a possible £13million if they don’t meet future financial targets.

Two clubs on the continent have also been fined, Barcelona £13million and Lyon £10.8million.

The Chelsea punishment is the largest fine UEFA has ever imposed on a club.

Martyn Ziegler at The Times explaining the breakdown of the breaches and fines:

‘Chelsea and Villa have both breached two Uefa rules. One is the football earnings rule, which replaced Financial Fair Play and covers financial losses made by the clubs, and the other is the squad cost rule where clubs cannot spend more than 80 per cent of their revenue on player wages, transfers and agents fees. That will also go down to 70 per cent for the 2025-26 season.

Chelsea were fined an immediate £17.2million for breaching the football earnings rule and £9.5million for breaching the squad cost rule. Villa were fined £4.3million and £5.2million for those breaches respectively.’

As part of their ongoing punishment and restrictions, the man from The Times explains that:

‘Chelsea and Aston Villa “may not register any new player on its List A to Uefa club competitions unless the List A transfer balance is positive”, Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) announced. That means any spending on new players must be covered by income from the sales of outgoing players — it could mean that new signings cannot be added to those clubs’ A lists unless existing squad members are sold.’

Compared to the Premier League farce, the good news is that UEFA don’t allow Chelsea the loopholes they have used that make the Premier League a laughing stock. UEFA refuses to recognise the sales of assets to sister companies as income. This has meant; ‘Chelsea have not been able to claim £200million as income from the sale of Chelsea’s women’s team to the club’s parent company and £70.5million from the sale of two hotels by Chelsea to a sister company.’

A week ago, it was reported that Aston Villa had done the same for the 2024/25 season, selling the Villa women’s team to themselves. Whether that means Aston Villa could end up in more trouble with UEFA (though not the Premier League!), remains to be seen.

Swaps

Another angle that UEFA have come down hard on both Aston Villa and Chelsea, is the use of ‘swaps’ in the transfer market.

The Times reporting:

‘In relation to both Chelsea and Villa, Uefa revealed that it had looked at “transactions involving the exchange of players (so-called ‘swaps’)” and that those “required specific adjustments to the club’s financial result”.

A number of Premier League clubs were involved in a series of interlocking transfers last summer (2024) which were seen as helpful to complying with its Profitability and Sustainability Rules. That included Chelsea signing Omari Kellyman for £19million from Aston Villa despite the teenager, who was 18 at the time, having made just two Premier League appearances, with Chelsea’s academy product Ian Maatsen going the other way for £37.5million.’

Newcastle United of course were also involved in ‘swaps’ last summer (2024), when Nottingham Forest paid £35m for Elliot Anderson and Newcastle United paid £20m for Odysseas Vlachodimos, transfers that helped both clubs stay within the Premier League PSR limits for the three years up to 30 June 2024.

Whether this could cause any issues for Newcastle United (and/or Forest) remains to be seen, as both head into UEFA competitions in the new season.

I think a lot of fans don’t realise, or choose to ignore, that for those hoping to compete in European competitions, it isn’t only Premier League financial rules that you have to watch out for but also the UEFA ones as well.

Whilst it is of course a positive to see Chelsea punished by UEFA for the ridiculous way they have carried on in terms of accountancy trickery AND been allowed to do so by the Premier League rules.

However, whilst it is a record UEFA fine that Chelsea have picked up, the reality is that £31m represents the left leg of one of the countless signings they are continuing to make.

A fitting punishment would and should have been banning Chelsea from European competitions for five or more years, in my opinion.