ASTON VILLA may reportedly be forced to cash in on stars such as Jack Grealish in order to comply with Financial Fair Play rules.
The Midlands outfit are allegedly in “danger of becoming the first Premier League club to breach” FFP rules.
Jack Grealish could be one of the players Aston Villa may be forced to sell in order to balance the booksCredit: Getty Images
And the Daily Mail claim they now need to “raise millions in player sales or wage savings before the summer” to make sure they meet the Prem’s spending limits.
That could result in a huge fire-sale next month – with star man Grealish their most obvious asset.
The 24-year-old attacker has a £45m buy-out clause included in his contract, but boss Dean Smith will be desperate to keep hold of him.
However, the rush to offload some players to balance the books may be postponed.
Villa’s annual accounting period ends of 31 May, which would give them around a fortnight after the Prem season ends to try and raise funds.
They only just avoided breaking the EFL’s profit and sustainability rules during the promotion campaign last season after controversially selling Villa Park to a company owned by the club’s owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens for £56.7m.
Without that, they would have been massively over the loss limits permitted.
They forked out £90m plus following their return to the top-flight without any major outgoings.
They did receive £100m in television income, but the Mail state “without the sale of Villa Park and land near their Bodymoor Heath training ground it is understood the club would have been well over the permitted loss limits”.
Premier League financial rules are less strict than the EFL’s, with Villa able to record a loss of up to £61m for the last three seasons.
They are yet to publish accounts for the 2018/19 campaign, but they did record a loss of £36.1m for the twelve months prior to that.
QPR, Leicester and Bournemouth have all been hit with a fine by the EFL for breaking their financial rules in the past.
However, Villa could now become the first to be hit in the pocket by the Prem.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
