UEFA Fines Chelsea, Barca €140m for Financial Breaches

Chelsea and Barcelona are among the 12 sides hit with fines for breaching UEFA’s financial regulations.

The two European giants have found themselves at opposite ends of the financial spectrums in recent years. Chelsea have spent enormous sums on players in the three years since the arrival of the current ownership and, while Barcelona are still blessed with significant income, their lofty expenses and subsequent struggles abiding by La Liga’s rules are no secret.

UEFA have analysed clubs across Europe across the financial years ending 2023 and 2024 and have found Chelsea , Barcelona , Aston Villa, Porto, Lyon and Hajduk Split guilty of breaching their football earnings rules.

Of those clubs, all bar Porto have agreed to settlements with UEFA, including mandatory fines and suspended punishments based on their spending over the coming years.

UEFA have also issued restrictions to squad registrations for those in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.

Club

Duration

Total Fine

Unconditional

Chelsea

4 years

€80m ($94.2m)

€20m ($23.6m)

Barcelona

2 years

€60m ($70.7m)

€15m ($17.7m)

Lyon

4 years

€50m ($58.9m)

€12.5m ($14.7m)

Aston Villa

3 years

€20m ($23.6m)

€5m ($5.9m)

Hajduk Split

3 years

€1.2m ($1.4m)

€0.3m ($0.4m)

Furthermore, Chelsea and Aston Villa were both found to have breached UEFA’s squad cost rule, which restricts clubs to spending a maximum of 80% of their revenue on transfers and associated costs.

These breaches come with unconditional fines relative to the size of each infraction, which clubs also reminded that the squad cost ratio will drop to 70% for 2025.

Club

Fine

Chelsea

€11m ($13m)

Aston Villa

€6m ($7.1m)

Beşiktaş

€0.9m ($1.1m)

Panathinaikos

€0.4m ($0.5m)

Crucially, the sanctions come in place of potential bans from European competition. Chelsea and Barcelona will, therefore, be free to compete in the Champions League next season, with Aston Villa also set for a run in the Europa League.