1 month ago
22 Under Unai Emery, Aston Villa’s star has continued to ascend, though a big problem with Financial Fair Play could end up derailing their season.
The Spaniard has a ‘secret’ to get the best out of his players and, so far in 2024/25, it appears to be working.
The Villains currently find themselves in fifth position in the Premier League, just four points behind leaders, Liverpool, and with only one loss in their seven games.
Unai Emery could see Aston Villa’s season derailed by FFP
They are a team and a club on the up, and it’s therefore no wonder that they are now being linked with some of the game’s best players.
However, FFP is always seeming to be lurking in the background, and despite a recent £50m cash injection from the owners, football finance expert, Stefan Borson, who used to work with Man City, has sounded a warning.
“At the moment, they (Villa) lose a lot of money, so they need the cash to be put in,” he told Football Insider.
“It can either be put in as a shareholder loan or they can put it in as equity, as they have done here.
Unai Emery could see his good work undone because of FFP. Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images“They have chosen not to build up a big shareholder loan, which given the changes that are likely to come into those rules, now appears to be a decent bet.
“But in any event, they probably couldn’t have done the shareholder loan on the back of the UEFA rules because they are probably pretty close to breaching UEFA FFP.
“They probably haven’t got the leeway to put loads of money in as a shareholder loan and account for a market level of interest within their FIFA submissions.”

 
Given how well the likes of Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran et al are playing, it would be a shame indeed to see Villa deducted points as others have been for breaching the rules.
That would surely put a real dampener on the season, and undo all Emery’s good work.
