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Europe’s top football governing body has fined Chelsea Football Club €31mn for breaching financial regulations, as part of a crackdown on some of the continent’s top teams.
Uefa punished Chelsea for breaching its football earnings rule on permissible losses and a related constraint on how much clubs can spend on player wages and transfers as a percentage of their revenue.
Chelsea could be hit with a further €60mn in fines if it does not rectify its shortcomings over the coming years.
Fines have also been imposed on three other top-tier clubs, as well as on smaller teams across the continent.
The punishment is a blow for the west London club and its US owners, private equity firm Clearlake Capital and a group led by financier Todd Boehly. They bought Chelsea for £2.5bn in 2022 from Roman Abramovich after the UK government sanctioned the Russian tycoon and forced him to sell the club following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Under Clearlake and Boehly, Chelsea has invested heavily in the playing squad with high-profile signings. It has incurred heavy operating losses even though it reported a pre-tax profit of £128mn in the financial year ended June 2024 after selling players and making one-off asset sales. However, Uefa does not include the latter in assessing compliance with its financial regulations.
Chelsea said it had worked “closely and transparently with Uefa to provide a full and detailed breakdown of its financial reporting”, adding that its financial performance was “on a strong upwards trajectory”.
“Chelsea FC greatly values its relationship with Uefa and considered it important to bring this matter to a swift conclusion by entering into a settlement agreement,” it said.
Aston Villa, a Birmingham-based club that also competes in the English Premier League, has been fined €11mn for similar breaches. The club could be fined a further €15mn if it fails to address the breaches.
Owned by Egypt’s richest man Nassef Sawiris and financier Wes Edens, Aston Villa also spent heavily on its squad. The club played in last season’s Uefa Champions League, the highest level of club competition in Europe, before losing to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.
Aston Villa declined to comment.
FC Barcelona, the current champions of Spain’s La Liga, has been hit with a €15mn fine, which could rise to €60mn, the latest in a series of financial challenges for the club.
Barcelona said it was still studying the announcement.
French side Olympique Lyonnais, owned by US businessman John Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings, has been fined €12.5mn, with that possibly rising to €50mn. The club is separately contesting a decision by French authorities to demote it from the French top flight because of its financial troubles.
Lyon acknowledged the settlement and thanked Uefa for its assistance during the process.
It is not uncommon for Uefa to impose smaller fines that increase over time should clubs fail to address their financial shortcomings.
All four clubs breached Uefa’s so-called football earnings rule. Football earnings include money made from ticket sales, sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, prizes and the sale of players.
However, Uefa said it had required clubs to adjust their relevant football earnings downwards. The governing body said it had paid “particular attention” to transactions involving asset sales, player swaps and transfers of players between related parties.
In contrast, the Premier League’s rules allow certain asset sales to be counted in calculations that are used to assess financial compliance. For instance, Chelsea complied with Premier League financial regulations after selling hotels to a related company, while this is not permitted by Uefa.
Chelsea and Aston Villa also breached Uefa’s “squad cost rule”, which limits how much clubs are allowed to spend on wages, transfers and agents’ fees as a percentage of revenue.
All four clubs agreed settlements with Uefa and the governing body said they had agreed to pay the fines.
