Aston Villa found to have breached SCR rules and given €22.5m fine by UEFA. However, UEFA have noted #AVFC’s improvements in lowering SCR between 2024 and 2025, so the fine is conditional and only has to be paid if Villa do not continue to show progress.
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Aston Villa fined conditional €22.5m for breaching UEFA financial rules
The €22.5m fine is the second most expensive fine to be handed out to a European club for 2025, behind Strasbourg
By Jacob Tanswell
Aston Villa have been fined €22.5million for breaching UEFA’s Squad Cost Rules (SCR) — but will only pay it if their compliance with the regulations takes a downturn.
UEFA, European football’s governing body, say Villa will only have to pay the fine if the club’s SCR position does not continue to show improvements, having seen a reduction in percentage between 2024 and 2025.
The Athletic reported last September that Aston Villa would breach UEFA rules once more, having been fined €11million (£9.6m) the year before. This was due to the club’s SCR — the percentage of overall turnover spent on football-related salaries — being above the 80 per cent mark it exceeded in 2024.
For the 2025 calendar year, Villa’s SCR was still found to be above the tightened 70 per cent limit imposed by European football’s governing body. The €22.5m fine is the second most expensive fine to be handed out to a European club for 2025, behind Strasbourg (€25m). Chelsea, meanwhile, were found to have breached and were fined €3m, €2m of which was conditional.
UEFA said in a statement: “Regarding Aston Villa FC and Chelsea FC, which had already been sanctioned in the previous season, the CFCB First Chamber took into consideration the improving trend in their squad cost ratio between 2024 and 2025 in line with projections submitted as part of their settlement agreement. As a result, part of the fine is conditional upon the clubs continuing to significantly decrease their squad cost ratio in 2026.”
Villa’s attempt to reduce their SCR to 70 per cent was a fundamental reason behind Villa’s lack of significant spending last summer, with their gross outlay the lowest in the Premier League.
From the €11m fine handed to them for 2024, €6m of that was attributed to breaching SCR, while the remaining €5m was due to breaking UEFA’s football earnings rule (FER), which is the governing body’s version of profit and sustainability rules (PSR). FER states that a club in its competitions can only incur losses of up to €60m (£52m) over three years. That can increase by €10m per season if teams meet certain sustainability criteria, but English clubs, carrying significant transfer debts, tend not to.
Subsequently, Villa entered into a settlement agreement with UEFA last year, on the back of breaching FER in the three-year period ending June 2024. The agreement places limits on future losses and Villa’s ability to register players for UEFA competition.
Villa’s settlement agreement means they are instead limited to a €5m football-earnings loss in the current season — a target that on its own looks difficult, given the club has no Champions League revenues to rely on while still bearing high operating costs. The agreement does allow that limit to be lifted to a maximum of €60m (£52m) if Villa’s owners provide equity funding, as they regularly do.
