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Uefa warns Chelsea and Villa

Uefa has made it clear to Chelsea and Aston Villa that it will scrutinise any player “swap deals” to ensure the fees have not been inflated after taking issue with at least one previous transfer.

The practice of two clubs paying significant transfer fees to each other with a player moving in either direction has taken place involving several teams in the Premier League in recent seasons.

Some rivals have viewed such deals as a way of artificially increasing transfer income to help comply with Profitability and Sustainability Rules, and Uefa revealed earlier this month that it knocked back the value of at least one deal involving both Chelsea and Villa.

Chelsea have a settlement agreement with Uefa, which runs for the next four seasons, and Villa for the next three seasons, after they breached its financial rules, which are tougher than the Premier League’s in terms of permitted losses.

It is understood that Uefa will continue to look at all such swap deals but given that Chelsea and Villa are subject to those settlement agreements, it will be looking closely at those clubs.   Both Chelsea and Villa have agreed that if they breach the settlement agreements they will be banned from European competition for a season.

It might be asked why this practice has not received the attention of the Premier League.

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