Richard Masters Unai Emery Aston Villa
(Credit: Getty Images/Imago)
Stefan Borson
Thu 10 July 2025 7:00, UK
Aston Villa’s latest big-money sale to avoid a profit and sustainability (PSR) breach could have been blocked by the Premier League.
The West Midlands giants have faced PSR issues over the past couple of years after spending close to the allowable losses limit, with top-flight clubs only permitted to lose £105million over a rolling three-year period.
Unai Emery’s side posted a club-record revenue in 2023-24 after their turnover increased from £217.7million in 2022-23 to £275.7million, while their losses fell from £119.6million to £85.4million.
Villa completed the last-ditch sale of their women’s team, helping them raise funds before their accounting deadline on 30 June.
V Sports – the club’s holding company – has purchased Aston Villa Women, while a deal has also been agreed to sell a stake in the women’s team to US-based investors at a valuation of around £55million.
Finance expert Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider the PSR rules are “dead” after the women’s team sale.
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The Premier League was looking to hold a vote to prevent clubs from selling assets to sister companies at the annual meeting of the 20 top-flight sides in June.
However, the proposal didn’t even go to a vote after it became clear there wasn’t enough support for the motion to pass.
Chelsea sold their women’s team to owners BlueCo last summer for around £200million, helping them turn their previous £90million loss for 2022-23 into a £128million profit for 2023-24.
Unai Emery Aston Villa
Unai Emery has been widely praised for his work at Aston Villa (Credit: Getty Images)
Premier League clubs permitted Aston Villa sale
Borson insisted the Premier League could have moved to block Villa’s women’s team sale.
He told Football Insider: “I think it’s pretty clear that the PSR rules are now dead on the back of being able to do these sorts of transactions because they’re nothing to do with sustainability.
“They are not even anything to do with profit really. I mean, it’s paper profit, it’s not real profit, it’s not real cash and it’s not sustainable.
“It’s purely about how you make the accounting and the legals work, and that’s not the purpose of PSR.
“To be perfectly frank, I do think that had the Premier League wanted to pursue the blocking of those transactions as not having genuine commercial rationale, they could have given it a go.
“That is part of the rules beyond the nuts and bolts of fair market value. There are catch-all rules within the Premier League rules that require transactions of this nature to have genuine commercial rationale, is the phrase.
“I think that there’s an argument that they don’t have genuine commercial rationale. Of course, the clubs will argue that I’m talking nonsense, but I think it’s arguable.
“But regardless, we’ve known about this now for probably 18 months that these transactions were in the pipeline, and it’s been accepted by the clubs themselves. They have chosen not to vote for the rules that would change it.
“They have chosen not to align themselves with Uefa.”
Premier League table Aston Villa
Aston Villa finished sixth in the Premier League table (Credit: Hasan Karim – Breaking Media)
Man United turn attention to signing Aston Villa star
In terms of a potential exit at Villa Park, Football Insider revealed on 4 July Ollie Watkins’s potential move to Manchester United hinges on the future of Rasmus Hojlund.
Watkins has emerged as a transfer target for Ruben Amorim’s side as they look to strengthen their attacking options this summer.
The 29-year-old registered 17 goals and 14 assists in 54 appearances in the 2024-25 season.
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