A few months ago, widespread reports revealed that Aston Villa were heading for trouble from a PSR perspective and would be forced to sell at least one key player this month to avoid breaching FFP rules.
However, you may have noticed that today, on PSR ‘deadline day’, there is no scramble for sales at Villa Park and no repeat of Newcastle’s messy situation 12 months ago, which forced us to sell Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh against our will.
Why? Because Aston Villa have become the latest club to exploit a major PSR loophole, as [David Ornstein](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6462218/2025/06/30/aston-villa-women-psr/) reveals today that they’ve just agreed to sell their women’s team to holding company V Sports, along with a stake ‘prominent U.S.-based investors.’
It’s also reported that there are no issues in doing this regarding the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR), while it’s also pushed them closer to a resolution with UEFA regarding their FFP compliance.
The Telegraph report that the deal is worth £55m, allowing them to avoid a PSR breach without selling a key player before tonight’s deadline.
Villa announced losses of £195m over the last two years, but they’ve been bailed out by a loophole, following Chelsea’s lead after the Blues sold their women’s team to owners BlueCo for a whopping £200m last June.
It makes you sick when Newcastle’s only PSR ‘fix’ was selling a locally-trained top young England prospect (Anderson) and new signing (Minteh) to two Premier League rivals 12 months ago today.
Why aren’t Newcastle doing the same thing, many will ask? It’s a complicated situation, but our women’s team will be a fraction of the value of Chelsea (won the WSL last season) or Aston Villa (finished sixth in the WSL last season).
Perhaps the club are hoping for promotion to the WSL before cashing in? Or are we missing a trick and failing to exploit the various loopholes Chelsea and others are now jumping through while they are still able to?
Who knows, but it’s a complete and utter mess that needs fixing by a frankly clueless Richard Masters.