For the first time in recent seasons, the Premier League has avoided the drama of mid-season points deductions. Every one of the 20 member clubs has been deemed compliant with the Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) for the 2024/25 period. However, the clean sheet comes with a significant asterisk: at least two clubs reached safety by offloading their women’s teams to sister companies in eleventh-hour accounting maneuvers.
According to reports from The Times, both Everton—now under the stewardship of the Friedkin family—and Aston Villa utilized this internal asset transfer in June 2025 to balance their books. By selling their women’s setups to related entities, the clubs were able to book immediate “capital gains” that offset heavy spending on the men’s side, effectively staying under the three-year £105 million loss limit.
The Loophole Controversy
While the Premier League permits these intra-group sales as long as they meet a “fair value” assessment, the practice has become a flashpoint for critics who view it as a regulatory loophole.
- The Chelsea Blueprint: Chelsea was the first to pioneer this strategy, selling hotels and training assets to parent companies. The move to include women’s teams as transferable assets is the latest evolution of this “balance sheet engineering.”
- UEFA vs. Premier League: The divergence in rules is stark. While the Premier League counts these sales as revenue, UEFA’s stricter Financial Fair Play rules do not. Consequently, while Aston Villa is safe domestically, they face potential UEFA fines as their squad costs (wages, transfers, and fees) have reportedly exceeded the 70% revenue threshold.
A New Regulatory Horizon
The current PSR era is nearing its end. Starting next season, the Premier League will pivot toward a model mirroring UEFA’s “squad cost” rule, albeit with a more generous 85% limit on revenue spending.
For now, the league maintains that these asset sales are not a “loophole” because of the rigorous independent valuations required. However, the fact that the league has failed three times to convince its member clubs to vote against these practices highlights a deep divide in how English football defines financial fair play.
The Impact on Women’s Football
While these moves save men’s teams from point deductions, they raise questions about the long-term governance of the women’s game. If women’s teams are being treated as movable accounting assets to cover men’s losses, their independent growth and valuation could become secondary to the financial needs of the parent club’s Premier League status.
For Everton and Aston Villa, the sales provided the “life-saving” accounting air needed to survive 2025. Whether this strategy remains viable in the face of evolving regulations remains the most expensive question in the English game.