Aston Villa are unlikely to be docked points by the EFL despite pushing the limits with their approach to Financial Fair Play, according to football finance expert.
The Villans have been pushing the boat out financially since their relegation from the Premier League, with new owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens providing a fresh injection of cash over the summer despite concerns over FFP.
However, Kieran Maguire, lecturer in football finance at the University of Liverpool, believes that the Birmingham club are highly unlikely to be docked points by the EFL despite their recent outlays.
Speaking to the Birmingham Mail, Maguire said: “I think everybody who has looked at the FFP thinks they’re pushing it to the limit. They’ve also offloaded some high earners. I’m surprised they’ve not sold one or two more players but I’m sure they’ve done their sums.
“There’s various things you can do with FFP and one of them is to say, ‘Sod it, we’ll pay the fine’. The Football League are unhappy about clubs that are going to do that. They have in theory unlimited power to punish clubs but points deductions are very unlikely.”
OPINION
This will be a huge relief to Villa fans, who are mostly in the dark about their club’s current financial situation. It was expected that the Villans would try and remedy their FFP deficit with the sale of Jack Grealish to Tottenham over the summer, but such a move never materialised. The decision to keep Grealish, along with the fact that the club brought in several new faces in the summer window, aided talk of a potential breach of FFP rules and a subsequent points deduction. However, expert Maguire seems to think that the possibility of that happening is low, and that is a huge boost for the club ahead of a long season. Villa need all the help they can get if they are to achieve promotion back to the Premier League this term, and being docked points would certainly not help their cause. That being said, a hefty fine will not do them any good either, although they may have to accept such a sanction after their unexpectedly busy summer.