VILLA AT RISK OF BREAKING FAIR PLAY RULES

PLAYER SALES ON THE CARDS TO BALANCE BIG SPENDING

ASTON Villa are in danger of becoming the first Premier league club to breach Financial Fair Play rules and may need to sell to ensure they comply with regulations this season. Sportsmail has been told that Villa need to raise millions in player sales or wage savings before summer in order to ensure they fit in with the Premier league’s spending limits.

Villa narrowly avoided breaching the EFl’s profit and sustainability rules during their promotion season through the controversial sale of Villa Park to a company owned by club owners nassef sawiris and Wes Edens, which raised £56.7million.

Without the sale of Villa Park and land near their Bodymoor Heath training ground it is understood the club would have been well over the permitted loss limits.

Villa spent heavily in the summer. Manager Dean smith was allowed to spend over £90m on new players, with no significant sales, which even allowing for the spread of payments indicates that the majority of Villa’s anticipated £100m Premier league television income has already been accounted for.

the Premier league’s spending limits are less stringent than the EFl’s — permitting clubs to lose an average of £35m as opposed to £13m over a three-year period — so Villa are able to record a maximum loss of £61m over the last three seasons.

the club lost £36.1m in 2017-18 and have yet to publish their accounts for 2018-19 and this season, although their results are understood to have left them needing to raise money over the remainder of this campaign.

Jack Grealish is Villa’s most obvious asset, with the midfield player having a £45m buyout clause in the new contract he signed last year, but the club would be loath to sell him.

Villa will not be forced to sell players next month as smith’s side battle to stay in the Premier league, as their annual accounting period ends on 31 May, giving them approximately two weeks after the end of the season to balance the books.

the EFl have previously fined Queens Park Rangers, Bournemouth and leicester City for failing to comply with its profit and sustainability rules, but no club has yet been charged as a result of breaching spending limits while in the Premier league.

aston Villa declined to comment.