Revealed: Aston Villa report pre-tax loss of more than £80million for 2023-24 season

The pre-tax loss is among the largest in Europe and would have been even more substantial but for the last-gasp sales of Douglas Luiz, Omari Kellyman and Tim Iroegbunam, which prevented the club breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules.

Villa have now recorded combined losses of more than £200m for the last two seasons while, in a separate development, are expected to be in breach of Uefa’s squad cost ratio rules (SCR) for the current campaign. Regulations restrict clubs to spending no more than 80 per cent of their revenues of wages, transfer fees and agents’ fees this term and Villa are likely to face a hefty fine, when the breach is confirmed.

Figures published in Uefa’s annual European Club Finance and Investment Landscape report showed how Villa scraped under last season’s 90 per cent SCR limit, with the club’s wage bill reported to be around £245m.

The return to European competition for the first time in more than a decade under Unai Emery helped boost revenues to more than £260m, the 18th largest in Europe.

But it was not enough to prevent Villa suffering another huge pre-tax loss, a year on from recording club record losses of £119m for the 2022-23 campaign.

According to the Uefa report, Villa reported losses of around £84m (100m Euros) for 2023-24, a figure which was boosted by the late sales of Luiz, Iroegbunam and Kellyman for combined fees of around £70m.

Those sales, completed in the final days of last June at the end of the accountancy period, were critical to the club avoiding a breach of the Premier League’s PSR rules and incurring a likely points deduction this season.  

Villa’s director of football operations Damian Vidagany explained last September how the club was left facing a “ticking bomb” in relation to PSR despite finishing fourth in the Premier League and qualifying for the Champions League.

The £42.3m sale of Luiz, completed just hours before the June 30 accounting deadline, was crucial to the club avoiding a breach. Fellow midfielder Iroegbunam joined Everton for £9m, while teenage forward Kellyman went to Chelsea for £19m. 

Villa went on to break their club record transfer fee after the 2023-24 accountancy period had ended, with the £50m capture of midfielder Amadou Onana from Everton. Left-back Ian Maatsen was also signed from Chelsea for £37.5m.

But the club has also made significant sales with former record signing Moussa Diaby leaving in a £51m deal to Al-Ittihad, while Jhon Duran joined Al-Nassr during the recent January transfer window for a fee which could eventually exceed £70m.

Villa’s run to the last-16 of the Champions League, meanwhile, is thought to have netted them around £75m so far, while there has also been a focus on boosting commercial income, which in 2023-24 did not rank in the top-20 clubs in Europe. 

In a recent interview with Sportico, the club’s president of business operations Chris Heck expressed hope revenues for this season will be around £370m, an increase of £100m on last year.

Villa’s full accounts for the 2023-24 season are due to be released next month.