Club affected by Premier League and Uefa financial fair play
‘It’s crazy. We’re going to have to deal with what we’ve got’
Ezri Konsa has said that football’s spending regulations “killed” Aston Villa during a difficult summer transfer window. The club, who have started the season badly with one point from three games and no goals scored, were hemmed in by the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules and the equivalent in Uefa competition.
Villa paid out one major fee – £30.5m to Nice for Evann Guessand – and made only four further first-team additions, Marco Bizot being followed in on deadline day by Victor Lindelöf, Harvey Elliott and Jadon Sancho. The club were open to selling Emiliano Martínez only for there to be no buyer and moved Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle for £39m despite Unai Emery preferring to keep him. As a homegrown player, Ramsey counted as pure profit on the books.
Villa have been hurt by their high wages-to-revenue ratio, which stood at 96% in 2023-24 according to Deloitte. Uefa fined the club on 4 July for a breach of its squad cost ratio rules and warned they could face competitive restrictions if they did not have a positive transfer balance by the end of the window. Villa have qualified for this season’s Europa League.
