UEFA has fined 14 clubs for breaching its financial sustainability rules ahead of the 2025-26 European season — and the numbers are not small. Aston Villa, Juventus, Newcastle United, Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and eight others are all paying for years of spending that outpaced their income.
The sanctions come from UEFA's Club Financial Control Body, which assessed clubs across three separate rule categories: the football earnings rule, the squad cost rule, and financial reporting requirements. Clubs fell foul of one or more. Some managed to land in all three.
Juventus and Newcastle face three-year compliance plans
The football earnings rule — which replaced UEFA's old break-even test and now measures aggregate losses across 2023, 2024 and 2025 — caught six clubs. Juventus and Newcastle were the biggest names.
Juventus were fined €20 million, of which €14 million is conditional. Newcastle's bill comes to €10 million, with €7 million suspended. Both clubs signed three-year settlement agreements, meaning they have until the end of the 2028-29 season to reach full compliance. They'll also face restrictions on their List A registrations for UEFA competitions — the 25-man squad list — which limits their ability to bring in new signings for European football.
Miss their annual targets, and the consequences escalate. We're talking stricter registration limits, or outright exclusion from UEFA competition. Neither club can afford to treat this as a fine and move on.
Nice and Santa Clara also breached the earnings rule but were judged to have shown the problems were temporary. Nice were fined €2 million, Santa Clara €1 million. Astana and Partizan got off lightly with €100,000 and €200,000 respectively for minor violations.
The squad cost rule catches the Premier League clubs hardest
UEFA's squad cost rule caps spending on wages, transfers and agent fees at 70% of club revenue and player sale profits. Nine clubs went over the line for the 2025 calendar year.
RC Strasbourg received the steepest squad cost fine — €25 million, including €12 million conditional. Aston Villa were close behind at €22.5 million, with €15 million suspended. Both clubs are banned from registering new players for the 2026-27 UEFA competition season, a sanction that will directly shape their summer business if they qualify for Europe next year.
The rest of the squad cost fines broke down like this:
- Fenerbahce: €7 million
- Fiorentina: €6 million
- Chelsea: €3 million (€2 million suspended)
- Newcastle: €3 million
- Nottingham Forest: €2.5 million
- AEK Athens: €500,000
- Nice: €450,000
Chelsea and Aston Villa had already been sanctioned last season for the same rule. UEFA noted both clubs showed an improving trend in their squad cost ratios — which is why their fines were relatively contained. But two consecutive years of sanctions is a pattern, not bad luck, and their ability to operate freely in the transfer market remains constrained as long as those ratios stay elevated.
Newcastle, notably, were caught by both rules. That's a €13 million total fine across the two breaches, plus the registration restrictions. It's a significant financial and operational hit for a club still building toward sustained Champions League participation.
Bologna and Napoli also exceeded the 70% squad cost threshold but escaped fines entirely — their breaches were offset by football earnings surpluses. FK Vardar Skopje were separately fined €250,000 for incomplete financial reporting and warned that a repeat offence within three seasons could mean exclusion from UEFA competition.
For clubs carrying squad cost ratios above the limit while also spending in the transfer market, the registration restrictions bite harder than the cash fines. You can absorb a €22.5 million penalty. You can't easily absorb being blocked from registering your new signings in Europe.
