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Football finance guru warns Villa

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire has warned Aston Villa that they cannot afford to slip into Euripe's third tier given that they have long been struggling to comply with Premier League financial fair play rules.   If you qualify for Europe you can only spend 70 per cent of your revenue on player costs comapred with 85 per cent in the Premier League.

Maguire pointed out that for every £1 you earn in the Champions League you get 22p in the Europa League and 11p in the Conference League.    Moreover, every place in the Premier League is worth £2.5m.

There are plans to expand the capacity of Villa Park to more than 50,000, but even if Villa double their match day revenue it will be over £100m behind that of United - they also attract more tourists who sp\end more on merch (yield at United is £80 per fan and at Villa £24).

Maguire reckons that Villa need to be in the Champions League two years out of three if they are going to join the big six.


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