Chelsea have been handed a record £27 million fine by UEFA for breaching financial regulations, with the threat of an additional £51.8 million in penalties if they fail to meet future financial targets. Aston Villa, Barcelona, and Lyon have also received fines—£9.5 million, £13 million, and £10.8 million respectively—as part of UEFA’s crackdown on clubs violating the governing body’s financial rules. Chelsea’s fine is the largest UEFA has ever imposed on a club.
The penalties stem from breaches of two key UEFA regulations: the football earnings rule, which replaced Financial Fair Play and relates to the club’s financial losses, and the squad cost rule, which limits the portion of revenue clubs can spend on wages, transfers, and agents’ fees. This limit is currently set at 80 percent and will drop to 70 percent by the 2025–26 season.
Chelsea were fined £17.2 million for violating the football earnings rule and £9.5 million for exceeding the squad cost limit. Villa’s fines were £4.3 million and £5.2 million for the same breaches. Both clubs now face future fines—£51.8 million for Chelsea and £13 million for Villa—if they fail to meet targets outlined in newly agreed settlement agreements.
Under these settlements, UEFA has also imposed restrictions on Chelsea, Villa, and Barcelona regarding their ability to register new players for UEFA competitions. Specifically, clubs may not add players to their List A squads (eligible to play in UEFA club competitions) unless the net balance of transfers is positive. This effectively means that new signings can only be registered if they are financially offset by player sales.
The breaches follow extensive spending by Chelsea after the Todd Boehly/Clearlake consortium took over the club in May 2022. The club’s aggressive transfer activity—exceeding hundreds of millions of pounds—caught the attention of UEFA, which enforces stricter accounting standards than the Premier League. Unlike England’s top flight, UEFA does not allow clubs to count sales of assets to related parties as revenue. This stance meant Chelsea could not include £200 million in revenue from the sale of their women’s team to their parent company or £70.5 million from the sale of club-owned hotels to a sister company.
UEFA stated that its Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) closely scrutinized such transactions, particularly the sale of tangible and intangible assets, and excluded profits from these when calculating relevant income. The organization also reviewed player swap deals, including those between Chelsea and Aston Villa, requiring additional adjustments in the clubs’ financial assessments.
One such notable transaction involved Chelsea’s £19 million signing of 18-year-old Omari Kellyman from Villa, despite his minimal top-level experience. At the same time, Chelsea academy graduate Ian Maatsen moved in the opposite direction for £37.5 million. Deals like this raised suspicions of creative accounting aimed at helping clubs comply with Profitability and Sustainability Rules, particularly in the Premier League, where these kinds of reciprocal transfers became common in the 2023 summer window.
All three clubs involved in UEFA’s ruling—Chelsea, Villa, and Barcelona—have entered into multi-year settlement agreements that impose both financial penalties and compliance obligations. Chelsea’s agreement will run for four years until the 2028–29 season, Villa’s for three years, and Barcelona’s for two. These settlements are designed to keep the clubs within financial guidelines going forward, while also limiting their flexibility in the transfer market unless they maintain financial balance.
Importantly, UEFA clarified that the fines imposed as part of these agreements will not be counted as part of the clubs’ financial losses in future UEFA assessments, allowing clubs to better manage their financial planning and stay within permissible loss limits.
In response to the ruling, Chelsea issued a public statement acknowledging the breach and confirming their cooperation with UEFA throughout the process. The club said it had submitted a full and transparent financial report for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 fiscal years. They accepted the penalties for exceeding the squad cost ratio, which UEFA said was between 80 and 90 percent during the 2024 reporting year.
Chelsea expressed that they valued their relationship with UEFA and had chosen to resolve the matter swiftly through a settlement. The club also emphasized that their financial performance is now on a strong upward trajectory and suggested that corrective measures are already taking effect.
Overall, UEFA’s decision marks a significant moment in the enforcement of its Financial Sustainability Regulations. With unprecedented fines, strict registration limits, and multi-year settlement agreements, the European body is sending a clear signal that creative accounting and excessive spending will be met with tough sanctions.
As elite clubs navigate these regulations, their ability to compete in UEFA competitions may increasingly hinge on disciplined financial management and prudent transfer activity.
