After announcing losses of £120million this week, Aston Villa may use amortisation to reduce the immediate impact of their summer signings.
Finance expert Kieran Maguire explained exclusively to Football Insider how Villa can avoid breaching financial rules by signing players to long-term contracts.
On Monday (4 March), Villa revealed their end-of-year accounts, which showed a loss of £119.6million after tax in 2022-23.
According to Premier League financial rules, clubs in the top flight cannot lose more than £105million over three years.
The Times reported that some Premier League clubs are “terrified” of spending this summer because they fear violating the financial regulations.
Aston Villa may amortise summer deals to dodge financial breach
Maguire suggested that Villa could follow Chelsea’s example under Todd Boehly and sign players to longer-term contracts. Before the Premier League limited amortisation to five years, the Blues signed several players to eight-year contracts after Boehly took over.
“Aston Villa have suffered sizeable losses but I don’t think they will be terrified of spending,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“If they do sign players in the summer they could sign them to five-year contracts so that amoritsation smooths out that cost.
“Player trading means that people will also be heading out the door as well as coming in.
“What they won’t be able to do is spend and spend and end up with a bloated squad because that’s just daft from a business point of view.
“Having too many players can cause a bad environment and resentment within the squad anyway.
“So I don’t think they’ll be terrified I think they’ll just accept this as a challenge.“