UEFA fines Chelsea $23.6M and Barcelona $17.7M for financial monitoring rules breaches

GENEVA AP Chelsea was fined a total of million euros million for urgent financial monitoring rules by UEFA on Friday to hit a record sum for a European club penalized in a single season Barcelona also was ordered to pay million euros million for making excessive losses according to UEFA s complex evaluations of club accounts if they qualify for European competitions designed to promote stability in the industry Both clubs were sanctioned over their financial accounts for and must pay tens of millions of more euros dollars in future seasons if they miss financial targets set by UEFA Chelsea was fined million euros million for failing to approach break-even and a further million euros million for spending more than a set limit of its revenue on so-called squad cost such as transfers and wages The Premier League club had been under review for the million pounds million sale of two hotels between subsidiaries of Chelsea s holding company Blueco Ltd Chelsea has been owned since by United States businessman Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital Chelsea has consistently spent lavishly in the transfer domain in the Boehly era Chelsea s biggest fine matches the record million euros million sanction imposed in on Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain by UEFA Those were the first round of penalties in the system then called Financial Fair Play In during the first year of Boehly s ownership Chelsea also paid UEFA a million euros million fine to settle irregularities committed while the club was owned by Roman Abramovich The oligarch was forced to sell the club after Russia s military invasion of Ukraine Barcelona previously paid UEFA a euros fine in a circumstance for misrepresenting income Both Chelsea and La Liga winner Barcelona have qualified for the Champions League next season which should earn both tens of millions of euros dollars In other investigations settled on Friday UEFA ordered Aston Villa to pay a total of million euros million for excessive spending during a season it played in Europe s third-tier Conference League Villa played in the Champions League this season UEFA fined financially troubled French club Lyon million euros million with future fines conditional on meeting targets The club owned by American businessman John Textor is fighting an appeal incident next week against being demoted from Ligue amid its financial turmoil and could yet be excluded by UEFA from the Europa League next season