Keith Wyness: Aston Villa and Newcastle trapped by 'misplaced' rules: 'It just isn't fair...'
Aston Villa and Newcastle United are both victims of UEFA's squad-cost rule being "misplaced."
That is according to former Villa chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who feels that their former club should be allowed to spend to their full capability.
Both the Villans and the Magpies were recently fined for breaches of UEFA's SCR rule, while the latter also breached their football earnings law.
Wyness believes that the "wealthy owners" at both clubs are trapped at the moment and are being prevented from progressing their projects.
Villa's latest fine totalled £19.4million, with around £12.9m of that suspended on the condition that they do not breach again.
Newcastle's fines totalled just over the £5m mark, and Wyness believes that both clubs are facing similar predicaments at the moment.
UEFA rules 'unfair' on Aston Villa and Newcastle
Villa's former chief Wyness - who served as CEO at Villa Park between 2016 and 2018 and now runs a consultancy business advising elite clubs - believes that UEFA's current rules are not fair on clubs like Villa and Newcastle.
The SCR rules allow clubs to spend 70 per cent of their total revenue on their squad, while the Premier League's ruling allows for 80 per cent.
Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider's Inside Track podcast, Wyness emphasised that UEFA need to take another look at their restrictions.
"To me, it's still something wrong in the rules that we can't have owners being able to put up bonds or some other type of mechanism to allow them to spend more," he said.
"There's got to be a way to do this when you have wealthy owners like PIF and (Nassef) Sawiris and (Wes) Edens at Villa who can do this sort of thing.
"There's got to be a way around this because it just isn't fair at the moment to stop them from going forward. However, these are the rules.
"So it's difficult. I think the rules are misplaced in some ways, but that's another big debate for another day."
Aston Villa at risk of being 'barred from Europe'
Former Manchester City financial advisor Stefan Borson told Football Insider on Wednesday that Villa are at risk of being "barred from Europe" if they continue to fail to comply with UEFA's spending rules.
The second city outfit are currently facing a combined total of over £17m in suspended fines, which are conditional on their compliance over the next three seasons.
However, Borson has warned that breaches in excess of the £20m mark can lead to UEFA implementing bans on clubs competing in European competitions.
The football finance expert stressed that is the worst case scenario for Villa, but there is currently little sign of their financial situation clearing at all.