Financial Fair Play

Uefa: fine for Roma, green light for Inter and Milan, examination in 2026 for Juve

Balance sheet audits led to a three million fine for the Giallorossi club (Inter and Milan are OK), while Juventus will be considered next spring for their European disqualification in 2024

by Marco Bellinazzo

4 July 2025

Istanbul TUR, July 2022: Flags with UEFA and UEFA Champions League waving in the wind. Champion League is the most prestigious club competition in European football

4' min read

4' min read

Roma fined three million, for Inter and Milan the green light, the same for Juventus whose trajectory of accounting rebalancing must take into account the maxi-loss suffered in 2024 of 195 million, largely attributable to disqualification from European competitions. For the rest, Uefa, in its first real application of the new financial sustainability rules, has sanctioned several clubs, starting with Chelsea, Aston Villa and Barcelona.

Italian clubs

In the last weeks of June, Roma had tried to place several outgoing strikes in order to realise capital gains and secure the accounts at 30 June 2025. A target almost reached (the variance in the end is less than 10 million, also in order not to sell off some players at the centre of the new Gasperini project). Uefa, meanwhile, has fined the Giallorossi club €3 million for 'slightly exceeding the intermediate target set for the financial year ending 2024 in relation to the Financial Fair Play stakes'.

Roma, in fact, had signed a four-year settlement agreement with Uefa in August 2022 (therefore expiring in 2026) in order to fall within the new rules on financial fair play dictated post-pandemic to favour the sustainability of the Old Continent's clubs (new rules that came into force in full force for all Old Continent formations from the beginning of 2025). Already last year, the Friedkin family's club had slightly exceeded the target set and had paid Nyon a fine of two million.

Three years ago, three other Italian clubs had also signed similar settlement agreements, paying partial fines: Inter (expiring next year), Milan and Juventus. In the latter two cases, the agreement was for three years and therefore expired on 30 June 2025.

In the communiqué released yesterday by Nyon, it is stated that AC Milan and Inter Milan 'have all achieved their interim financial targets'. In Europe, other clubs that had signed agreements with Uefa were also promoted: AS Monaco, Olympique de Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain, Besiktas, Trabzonspor and Royal Antwerp FC.

The Football Earnings Rule

During the first application of the new rules and in particular of the so-called 'Football Earnings Rule', which, when fully implemented, requires not to lose more than 60 million in three years, Uefa's auditing body found overruns for six clubs: Hajduk Split, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Barcelona, Olympique Lyonnais and Porto. The analysis covered the budgets of the fiscal years ended 2023 and 2024. Uefa's auditing body mainly examined transactions such as the sale of tangible or intangible assets, exchanges of players ('swaps') and transfers between related parties, the profits from which, according to the new financial sustainability regulation, are not fully considered as a source of relevant revenue.

Five of these clubs, with the exception of Porto which was fined 5 million (4.75 suspended), agreed to sign settlement agreements lasting 2, 3 or 4 years and to pay substantial fines.

Chelesa has agreed to a four-year deal until the 2028/29 season with a total fine of 80 million if he does not fulfil the agreement, paying 20 million immediately. Barcelona has a two-year deal (until the 2026/27 season) with a total fine of 60 million, paying 15 million immediately. Olympique Lyonnais will be under settlement agreement until the 2028/29 season, with a suspended fine of 50 million, of which 12.5 million will be paid immediately. In addition, the French club agreed to automatic exclusion from 2025/26 competitions in the event of confirmation of relegation to Ligue 2 by the French DNCG. Aston Villa signed a three-year pact (until the 2027/28 season), with a total fine of 20 million (5 unconditional). Finally, Hajduk Split will be under special observation until the 2027/28 season (1.2 million fine, 0.3 million paid immediately).

These clubs will be subject to restrictions on the inclusion of new players in List A measures, which may be conditional, unconditional or both, and vary according to the duration of the agreement and will have to meet interim annual targets, subject to additional sanctions, which may even go as far as exclusion from competitions.

Squad cost rule

With regard to the rule on the cost of the squad, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Panathinaikos and Beşiktaş exceeded the limit of 80 per cent of revenue spent on wages, amortisation and brokerage costs set as a transitional threshold for 2024, placing it between 80 per cent and 90 per cent, and received a fine proportional to the excess. Chelsea by 11 million, Aston Villa by 6 million, Beşiktaş by 0.9 million and Panathinaikos by 0.4 million.

The Juventus situation

As for Juventus, whose three-year deal expires this year, it has fully complied with the rule on the cost of the roster by staying below 80% in the calendar year 2024. The projection for 2025 with increased revenues and a consolidation on the cost front is that it will be fully compliant with the final 70% paring. On the 'Football Earnings Rule' front, the Juventus club must discount the maxi-loss due to the exceptional situation of exclusion from competitions on 30 June 2024. A condition that Uefa has decided to take into account, already in application of that disqualification and even more so in the face of the improvement in the accounts, so the examination has been postponed to next spring when the balance sheet to 30 June 2025 and the club's economic prospects will also be examined.