Stefan Borson: Arsenal are ‘close’ to breaching financial rules
Arsenal are going to be “close” to breaching Uefa’s financial rules following their heavy spending at the Emirates Stadium.
Uefa confirmed last month Chelsea have been fined £26.7million and could be fined a further £51.2m if they don’t comply with the governing body’s rules in the next four years.
Meanwhile, Villa have been fined £9.5m, with the potential of a further £12.9m penalty if they fail to comply in a three-year period.
The punishments relate to a breach of Uefa’s football earnings regulations and its squad cost ratio, where clubs in European competitions were required to keep spending on player wages and fees to 80 per cent of revenue in 2024.
However, the control ratio dropped to 70 per cent in 2024-25 and will remain at that level moving forward, with Arsenal’s revenue reaching £616.6m in their latest published accounts for 2023-24, while their wage bill was £327.8m.
Arsenal could get £11m boost
Former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider Arsenal could improve their squad cost ratio if they win all of their Champions League games before the end of this calendar year.
Mikel Arteta’s side beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 in their opening game of the competition, while they will play five more matches before the end of December.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson said: “On the squad cost control rules, a number of clubs are going to be challenged of the nine who are being tested.
“Arsenal are going to be close if you look at what are the variables from the Arsenal perspective between now and the time when the squad cost control is assessed.
“They won’t be in danger on the football earnings, so you can put that to one side. But on the squad cost control side, a lot of it will depend on how they do in the first phase before December in the Champions League.
“If they were to win the six games that they’ve got before 31 December, that’s going to generate something like from memory maybe €12.5m (£10.9m) of prize money, plus you’ve got the revenue from the three home games.
“If that went well, that will be very useful in terms of getting them just over. There’s probably not that many other elements between now and the end of the year that they can increase revenue from.
“Squad cost control is a calendar year test, so it takes half of the numbers from the accounting year 2024-25 and the first half of 2025-26.
“We’ll never see them broken out like that, but we can kind of try and guesstimate what that might look like, and they’re going to be close.”
Arsenal have seen their wage bill increase dramatically over the past couple of years after challenging towards the top of the Premier League table.
How much did Arsenal spend in the summer transfer window?
Arsenal’s wages are likely to increase again this season, with multiple big-name signings arriving through the door at the Emirates Stadium in the recent summer transfer window.
The Gunners spent around £250m after signing Eberechi Eze, Viktor Gyokeres, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Martin Zubimendi, Christian Norgaard, Cristhian Mosquera and Noni Madueke on permanent deals, with Piero Hincapie also joining on loan.
Arteta’s side have picked up 10 points from their opening five games of the new Premier League season.
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