Aston Villa’s sale of its women’s team has effectively solved the issue regarding this summer’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).
A deal has been agreed to sell that faction of the club to V Sports, the parent company which controls a majority stake in Villa and is jointly owned by Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris. A stake has also been finalised with American-based investors and their arrival, as a third-party entry, provides evidence in indicating the market value of the women’s team.
One source, who, like all others in this piece, spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, said Villa had been exploring the possibility of a sale for the past 18 months.
Yet it was only shortly before June 30, the end of the financial year, that an agreement was reached.
It was a close shave but Villa have, essentially, replicated what Chelsea did in May, selling their women’s team to BlueCo — the company, akin to V Sports, that owns them, while trading an eight per cent stake to Alexis Ohanian, the founder of Reddit.
That deal valued Chelsea Women overall at £245million and though this figure is far superior to Villa’s, significant funds will be raised, in turn guarding against the threat of PSR. Villa had recorded losses of £195m over the past two years but combined losses of more than £105m over three seasons would constitute a PSR breach. Perhaps to no coincidence, only Chelsea (£431.3m) have lost more on a day-to-day basis in the previous two years, discounting player sales, than Villa.
Villa could be forced to revise down the eventual figure of the women’s team sale if the Premier League deems the valuation excessively.
This was the third different route Villa have ventured down in as many summers when devising a solution to PSR. In 2023, Villa sold homegrown talents and retained buy-back options in players such as Cameron Archer, Jaden Philogene and Aaron Ramsey. Each sale was banked as pure bookable profit in PSR terms.
The situation heightened the following year, but Villa and other clubs in similarly frenzied states negotiated cross-player transactions, where players headed in opposite directions between them but were treated as separate deals. This allowed Villa to account the full amount for departures for the next PSR deadline while spreading out the cost of incoming players over their length of their contracts.
In a £9m deal, Tim Iroegbunam joined Everton, who exchanged Lewis Dobbin to Villa for the same price. Omari Kellyman was reluctantly allowed to head to Chelsea and, in return, Villa signed Ian Maatsen. Although it appeared Villa paid £37.5m for Maatsen, that number will be spread out across a six-year contract and be discounted by the £19m received for Kellyman.
The most notable business was Douglas Luiz moving to Juventus (£42.5m) and Samuel Iling-Junior and Enzo Barrenechea going in the opposite direction for a combined cost of £18.5m. Neither has made a league appearance for Villa and spent last season on loan. They are both available to leave this summer.
Douglas Luiz moved to Juventus from Villa last summer (Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
Manoeuvring ploys do not just stretch back to 2023 and under Unai Emery’s governance. Four years earlier, Villa Park was sold to Sawiris and Edens in a deal worth £56.7m.
But crucially, this time around, PSR was never going to be the most alarming matter. Selling the women’s team alleviates those pressures, but it is not the total panacea. Senior figures describe UEFA’s Squad Cost Rules (SCR) as the most serious challenge that faces Villa, with compliance a difficult task. It is why there is little celebration in the women’s team sale and remedying PSR issues, knowing there is another issue at hand.
Villa will participate in the Europa League next season and therefore within UEFA’s financial orbit. The rules of European football’s governing body dictate that “spending on player and coach wages and transfers and agent fees” must be capped at 70 per cent of a club’s revenue from the 2025-26 season onwards.
Club sources state Villa’s wage-to-turnover costs are projected in the mid-eighties, meaning they will have to remove further salaries from the books to fall below 70 per cent. Plainly, SCR was always more alarming than PSR, even if the latter had greater time pressures owing to the June 30 deadline.
While Villa say they are close to a resolution with UEFA relating to compliance from the previous season, having initially been expected to incur a substantial fine for breaches, repeated offenders are more likely to suffer sporting punishments than just monetary sanctions.
Profit from the women’s sale will be stripped out of Villa’s UEFA’s calculations, as the governing body refuses to allow clubs to record profits on intra-group deals.
Villa have a few more months to comply with SCR, but need to discernibly trim the wage bill and replace outgoing players. Senior figures have been working at Bodymoor Heath, the club’s training campus, most days throughout the summer, focused especially on this task and with little time afforded for holidays.
The landscape has been slow to change, with saleable assets either uncertain about their futures, away with their national teams or wanting to wait for the best offers to arrive. Interested suitors prefer to recruit after June 30, so the next set of accounts would not be impacted.
Then there are other examples of players who should, in theory, be quick fixes as they have no future at Villa. Leander Dendoncker and Philippe Coutinho both have 12 months left on their respective contracts. In the case of the latter, Villa expect to terminate his contract but still have to arrange Coutinho’s financial package, given they still owe the final amortisation payment to previous club, Barcelona.
In short, little has changed regarding player sales. Villa acknowledge they have to compensate for the deficit in missing out on Champions League football and reduce the wage bill. There are several fringe players available to leave, but the quickest and shortest route to complying with UEFA’s 70 per cent cap is to sell high earners and replace them.
This is not Villa’s first rodeo when battling to navigate around and defend against financial rules. The next challenge is to comply with UEFA’s.
(Top photo: Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)