Chelsea and Aston Villa are both poised to face penalties for breaching UEFA's financial regulations, whilst La Liga titans Barcelona could be hit with even harsher sanctions. The two Premier League clubs are anticipated to be fined by European football's governing body due to first-time breaches.
It is reported that Chelsea have surpassed UEFA's financial loss limits for the previous season, as they were not permitted to declare the income generated from selling their women's team. The team was sold to sister company Blueco 22 Midco Limited for a record-breaking £200million, a move which sparked controversy.
Unlike the Premier League, UEFA does not allow clubs to declare income from asset sales to sister companies. In April, Chelsea announced that they had 'entered into discussions regarding mitigating factors affecting their regulatory submissions'.
Villa are also believed to have breached the limits, according to the Times. UEFA permits teams to incur losses of up to €200m (£170m) over a three-year period.
Clubs can make deductions for expenditure on youth and women's teams, as well as on their stadium and facilities.
Last year, Villa were slapped with a £52,000 fine for late submission of their accounts. This comes as another setback after Unai Emery's side narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification.
Barcelona seem to be in a more precarious situation. In October, the newly-crowned Spanish champions lost an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over a €500,000 (£420,000) fine from UEFA due to incorrect profit reporting.
The panel deemed the penalty 'actually relatively mild'.
The CAS verdict also unveiled a warning that Barca could face 'harsher' penalties for another violation. "The CFCB... highlights that a similar breach by the club in the 2023-24 monitoring process would constitute a case of recidivism and would be addressed by the imposition of a harsher disciplinary measure on FC Barcelona," the ruling declared.
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Potential punishments for Barcelona could include a reduced limit on the number of players they can register for next season's Champions League or even a points deduction. Their financial troubles are well known, although sporting director Deco maintains they won't need to offload any of their star players in the summer transfer window.
"I knew it would be difficult when I joined with the financial rules - it is not a financial problem, but the financial fair play rules in Spain are more stringent than the Premier League and in other countries," Deco informed BBC Sport.
"It is a problem for a lot of clubs, you just hear about Barca because we are a big club. You need to work with it, see how you can improve the team and the combination of La Masia [their academy] players and experienced players has been important."