Aston Villa have agreed a deal to sell their women’s team to V Sports and a stake in the operation to prominent U.S.-based investors.
Villa say they have no issues regarding the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) and are close to a resolution with UEFA in relation to compliance with its financial fair play (FFP) regulations, amid ongoing discussions with the European governing body.
V Sports is the parent company which owns Villa and was previously founded as NWSE, before being rebranded in 2021. It is jointly owned by American billionaire Wes Edens and Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris, the latter of whom is Villa chairman.
V Sports also owns a 29 per cent stake in Portuguese side Vitoria S.C. and a 25 per cent stake in Spanish side Real Union. It holds partnership agreements with Egyptian Premier League club ZED FC and Vissel Kobe of the J1 League.
The Athletic reported last week that Villa were exploring the option of selling their women’s team to help with PSR compliance.
One source, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, said Villa have been looking into a sale for the past 18 months, having recorded losses of £195million ($267) over the past two years — leaving them in danger of breaching PSR.
Villa’s move mirrors fellow Premier League side Chelsea’s decision to sell their women’s team to BlueCo, the company which owns the west London club, for nearly £200m in June 2024.
In May, Chelsea sold an eight per cent stake in the women’s team to Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit and husband of tennis star Serena Williams. That stake put the total value of the team at approximately £245m.
Villa finished sixth in the Women’s Super League (WSL) last season and have played in the English top flight since 2020-21. The men’s team also finished sixth in 2024-25 and will play in the Europa League next term as a result.
Villa reported a loss of £85.4m for the 2023-24 season following a loss of £119.6m for 2022-23. They turned a profit of £300,000 in 2021-22 but a combined loss of more than £105m over three seasons would constitute a PSR breach, although spending on infrastructure, youth and women’s football is exempt.
Analysis
By football finance writer Chris Weatherspoon
Where Chelsea led, Aston Villa have followed.
Just over a year to the day Chelsea sold the legal entity housing their women’s team to a company elsewhere in their group structure, now Villa have followed suit.
Chelsea banked £198.7million in profit on that intra-group sale last year and, though we don’t know the amount V Sports have valued Villa’s women’s team at, the two deals share one important quality: they provide precious profit to the bottom line and, correspondingly, a club’s PSR calculation.
Villa have stated they have no issues regarding the Premier League’s financial rules, though how much that was true before today’s news is less clear.
The Athletic detailed earlier this month the expectation Villa would need to be ‘active sellers’ before their accounting period end date, today, to remain compliant.
Villa’s pre-tax losses across their last two accounting periods, both included in their 2024-25 calculation, total £206.2m.
The natural presumption was the sold assets would take the form of players, but this news removes the need for Villa to dispense of squad stars.
Moreover, the sale aids them in the future too; any profit booked in 2024-25 will also fall into the club’s 2025-26 and 2026-27 PSR calculations, presuming the existing regulations remain in place then.
The Premier League’s rules do not bar clubs from selling assets internally – a motion to do so did not even make it to a vote at a recent meeting – but do require a fair market value assessment of all such transactions.
Villa will be aided there by the arrival of U.S.-based investors in the women’s team; the entry of a third party provides key evidence in determining market value.
Villa could be forced to revise down their proceeds and profit if the Premier League deems the valuation excessive which, again, the arrival of new investors renders improbable.
Even if that occurs, it is high unlikely any revision would be so large it pushed the club into a PSR breach.
On the European stage, profit from the deal will be stripped out of Villa’s UEFA PSR calculation, as the governing body refuses to allow clubs to record profits on intra-group deals.
Villa remain in discussion with UEFA over a previous purported breach, but the governing body has tended to issue monetary sanctions rather than the more damaging sporting punishments meted out by the Premier League in recent seasons.
(Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
