Aston Villa have been considering selling their women's team this summer after Chelsea raised nearly £200m
Aston Villa's women's team avoided relegation from the WSL last season
Aston Villa's women's team avoided relegation from the WSL last season
(Image: The FA via Getty Images)
Aston Villa have the option to raise revenue via a partial or full sale of their women’s team this summer.
After failing to qualify for the Champions League for next season, the club have been assessing creative methods to generate funds.
The Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) limit what clubs can spend in relation to how much they earn.
Under PSR, clubs cannot post losses of more than £105 million over a three-year period.
Last summer, Villa raised roughly £70 million from player sales before the end of the Premier League accounting period on June 30.
Tim Iroegbunam left for Everton in a deal worth £9m, before Omari Kellyman joined Chelsea for £19m ad Douglas Luiz headed to Juventus for £42m.
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This summer, following a lucrative run in the Champions League, Villa are under far less pressure heading into the end of the month.
Will Villa sell their women's team?
The Athletic claims that Villa have been considering selling their women’s team for the last 18 months.
Their need to raise money has certainly increased after finishing outside the top five last season, although it is worth noting that the club have not gambled on qualifying for the Champions League year after year.
Instead, staying in European competition is their primary target, with qualification for UEFA’s elite club competition their aspirational goal.
While it’s unclear whether Villa would effectively sell to themselves or to external investors, any transaction would provide crucial revenue.
What did Chelsea do?
BlueCo's move to sell Chelsea’s women’s team to a sister company for nearly £198.7 million helped the club comply with PSR rules and record a pre-tax profit of £128.4 million in 2023–24.
The deal remains subject to top-flight approval - just as the sale of two club-owned hotels previously did before the value of the transaction was reduced.
The Blues have even confirmed that the agreement contains a clause requiring an "adjustment to the consideration receivable in the event that the Premier League's determination of the fair market value differs from the £200m recognised."
Although Chelsea's most recent accounts revealed the women’s team brought in revenues of little more than £11.5 million in 2023–24, a 10 percent stake has since been bought by Alexis Ohanian for £20 million.
Will the loophole be closed?
Earlier this month, the Premier League failed in its bid to prevent clubs from selling assets to sister companies to comply with PSR.
A proposal to close the loophole that allowed Chelsea to register a “profit” from selling hotels and their women’s team to a sister company did not even go to a vote at the Premier League’s annual meeting.
The Times reported that some clubs felt changing the rules now would be “closing the stable door after the horse had bolted.”
Richard Masters has insisted that Chelsea have not "exploited a loophole" by selling their women's team to a sister company for £200 million.
Earlier this month, Richard Masters addressed the matter for the first time after the Premier League's chief executive was quizzed by Sarah Keig, a Fulham fan representative, at a Football Supporters' Association event.
"SK raised concerns about Chelsea Football Club selling their women’s team for a reported £200m to pass profit and sustainability rules, thereby exploiting a loophole," the minutes of the meeting read.
"RM said the club hadn’t exploited a loophole as what Chelsea did was permissible and he stressed that all transactions are subject to a fair market value assessment."
Aston Villa's women's team
Aston Villa's women's team(Image: The FA via Getty Images)
What about UEFA's squad cost rules?
Selling the women’s team wouldn't simply remove all of Villa’s issues with financial rules.
UEFA does not accept the sale of assets to sister companies as income to help satisfy its squad cost ratio rules.
UEFA restricts spending on “player and coach wages and transfers and agent fees to 70 percent of the club’s revenue” from the 2025–26 season onwards.
This year, Villa have to fall below 80 percent, having been above the 90 percent limit in the 2023–24 campaign.
That’s why Emi Martínez and Lucas Digne are two players who could be moved on this summer, as they are among the club’s highest earners.
Martínez will turn 33 years old later this year and Digne will celebrate his 32nd birthday next month.
Digne only has one year left on his contract, while Martínez’s value will likely depreciate beyond this summer window, considering his age.
What do the experts say?
If Villa sell their women’s team, the deal could have a knock-on effect on the club’s overall valuation, as former Manchester City financial advisor Stefan Borson previously explained.
"If Chelsea's women's team is worth £200m, all of the value in the women's team that justifies £200m is about what the women's game looks like in 2050," he said. "It's not about what it looks like in 2025.
"It's irrelevant in the formative years of the women's game that Chelsea won trophies because it's all about the future value. So if it's all about the future value of a top football club franchise in the women's game, that applies to almost any Premier League club regardless of their current size.
"Newcastle, Everton and Aston Villa's women's teams are all worth over £100m on the Chelsea valuation metrics because it's not about what they have won so far or the revenue or the profit - it's about what they might be worth in 25 years' time with a football brand the equivalent of Chelsea's."