Aston Villa punished for breaching UEFA licensing and financial sustainability regulation

UEFA has fined Aston Villa €60,000 (£50,000) for late submission of financial information.

The Club Financial Control Body set financial targets for the 2023-24 season and, while Villa met the threshold, they have been sanctioned for failing to deliver their information on time. Ligue 1 side Marseille have also been fined €20,000 (£17,000) for late paperwork.

Roma have been hit harder in the pocket, to the tune of €2m (£1.7m) for failing to meet their financial fair play (FFP) targets for the financial year ending June 2023.

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UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) met this week to assess clubs against the newly-introduced squad cost rule (SCR) for the first time.

The rule dictates that a club’s total expenditure on transfers, wages and agent fees cannot exceed a certain percentage of its revenue. For the 2023-24 season this was 90 per cent, but this will decrease to 80 per cent for the 2024-25 campaign and then 70 per cent from 2025 onwards.

All clubs reported a squad cost ratio within the 90 per cent limit but Villa and Marseille were penalised for submitting this late.

Failure to meet the submission deadline is a breach of article 95 of UEFA’s club licensing and financial sustainability regulations.