Aston Villa could soon find themselves in hot water, with UEFA, over allegedly breaching financial regulations – potentially opening up a window of opportunity for Arsenal to succeed in the transfer market where they have previously failed.
Reports from The Times indicate that Villa are ‘expected’ to fall foul of UEFA’s squad cost ratio (SCR) rules. These rules are in place to ensure excessive spending does not occur from clubs in European competition and promote greater financial stability across divisions.
Their cap for all squads is spending up to 80 per cent of their total annual revenue on their squad – the Midlands outfit are understood to have a wage to revenue ratio of 96 per cent, as per Deloitte’s financial report last month.
For now, it is believed a monetary fine would suffice, although it is not something UEFA would tolerate over and over. After all, Villa do have ambitions of competing in Europe on a consistent basis.
Along with Arsenal, they have reached the Champions League’s last-16 this season, which will bring with it top prize money, but at least for now it looks like they will miss out on the top competition – and perhaps European qualification entirely – based purely through their Premier League position.
Villa have done all they can to bite back at the current financial precedents set out in England. Most recently, the Midlands club asked for a future adoption of SCR in the Premier League to have a 90 per cent limit rather than 85, but failed to gain the support of their rivals.
Before that, it was the rejection of a proposal that would see the permitted losses under Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) rise from £105million over a three-year period to £135million.
It could force them to turn down the path they least want to travel, reducing the wage bill by moving players on. But that, ultimately, is how the Gunners could well capitalise.
football.london understands that a £40million-plus-add-ons proposal was submitted by Arsenal, to Villa, during the January transfer window for striker Ollie Watkins. This came before Jhon Duran’s exit talks with Al-Nassr had reached an advanced stage – and long before when the news came to light in the hours before the final round of Champions League league phase fixtures.
Still, the fact of the matter is that attempt failed and left Mikel Arteta without a signing during the last transfer window. Kai Havertz’s season-ending injury since and added to Gabriel Jesus’ has only heightened the impact of missing out on the England forward.
It may also have appeared Villa were the main protagonists in January talks for Watkins’ sale – having identified a chance to get a good fee for the 29-year-old. Now, the reality of the situation is that they possibly have another incentive to free up their No.11’s £130k-per-week wages – as is the figure stated Capology – making him one of the club’s highest earners.
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