Aston Villa hit with substantial UEFA fine

But both Villa, who returned to Europe for the first time in more than a decade when they played in last season’s Conference League, and Marseille have been penalised for failing to deliver the information by the required deadline.

It is not known just how late Villa eventually submitted their records but the club has been fined 60,000 Euros by Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body.

However, it has also been confirmed Villa, along with every other club, were within the cost control limit which allowed clubs to spend a maximum 90 per cent of their revenues on transfer fees, player salaries and agents’ fees.

That figure will drop to 80 per cent for the current 2024-25 season and Villa took steps to reduce their wage bill this summer with the £51million sale of Moussa Diaby.

Uefa’s cost control rules are separate to the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations, which permit clubs to lose a maximum of £105m over the course of a three season cycle.

Villa, who will play in this season's Champions League, were forced to sell Douglas Luiz to Juventus for £42.3m to comply with the latter and the difficulty of adhering to both sets of rules has been criticised by club officials.

“Uefa forces you to sell expensive players. For instance, to decrease our ratio of cost, we have a great deal that was Diaby,” Villa’s director of football operations Damian Vidagany explained this week.

“But if you want to stick to PSR you have to sell cheaper players and academy players. It’s almost impossible to match bo