Premier League duo of Chelsea and Aston Villa and Spanish giant, Barcelona, have been fined for failing to comply with financial regulations put in place by European football’s governing body, UEFA
Chelsea were fined €31m, a figure that could rise to €91m if they fail to sort out their finances within the next four years.
Villa were also fined €11m fine, which could increase to €31m if they fail to sufficiently arrange their finances to ensure compliance with UEFA’s regulations.
For their part, Barcelona was ordered to pay 15 million Euros ($17.7 million) by UEFA.
I news co.uk reports that the clubs will also face restrictions on 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.”
Chelsea had been under investigation for the 76.5 million pounds ($104.4 million) sale of two hotels between subsidiaries of Chelsea’s holding company, Blueco 22 Ltd.
Chelsea’s fine matches the record 20 million euros ($23.6 million) sanction imposed in 2014 on Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain by UEFA. Those were the first round of penalties in the system then called Financial Fair Play.
It is one of UEFA’s biggest ever punishments – the biggest if the suspension on fines are lifted by further breaches – and could also see Chelsea restricted on new player registrations for next season’s Champions League.
The UEFA rules are different and tighter on these issues to the Premier League Profit and Sustainability Rules, which meant Chelsea were not in breach.
UEFA referred in their judgement on the football earnings rule: “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.”
In other investigations settled on Friday, UEFA fined financially troubled French club Lyon 12.5 million euros ($14.7 million) with future fines conditional on meeting targets.
The club owned by American businessman John Textor is fighting an appeal case next week against being demoted from Ligue 1 amid its financial turmoil, and could yet be excluded by UEFA from the Europa League.
