UEFA fines Chelsea $36.5M and Barcelona $17.7M for financial monitoring rules breaches

GENEVA (AP) — Chelsea was fined a total of 31 million euros ($36.5 million) for breaking financial monitoring rules by UEFA on Friday to hit a record sum for a European club penalized in a single season.

Barcelona also was ordered to pay 15 million euros ($17.7 million) for making excessive losses according to UEFA's complex evaluations of club accounts if they qualify for European competitions, designed to promote stability in the industry.

Both clubs were sanctioned over their financial accounts for 2024 and must pay tens of millions of more euros (dollars) in future seasons if they miss financial targets set by UEFA.

Chelsea was fined 20 million euros ($23.6 million) for failing to approach break-even and a further 11 million euros ($13 million) for spending more than a 80% set limit of its revenue on so-called “squad cost” such as transfers and wages.

The Premier League club had been under investigation for the 76.5 million pounds ($104.4 million) sale of two hotels between subsidiaries of Chelsea’s holding company, Blueco 22 Ltd. Chelsea has been owned since 2022 by United States businessman Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.

Chelsea has consistently spent lavishly in the transfer market in the Boehly era.

Chelsea’s biggest fine matches the record 20 million euros ($23.6 million) sanction imposed in 2014 on Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain by UEFA.

Those were the first round of penalties in the system then called Financial Fair Play.

In 2023, during the first year of Boehly's ownership, Chelsea also paid UEFA a 10 million euros ($11.8 million) fine to settle irregularities committed while the club was owned by Roman Abramovich. The oligarch was forced to sell the club after Russia's military invasion of Ukraine.

Barcelona previously paid UEFA a 500,000 euros (590,000) fine in a 2023 case for misrepresenting income.

Both Chelsea and La Liga winner Barcelona have qualified for the Champions League next season which should earn both tens of millions of euros (dollars).

In other investigations settled on Friday, UEFA ordered Aston Villa to pay a total of 11 million euros ($13 million) for excessive spending during a season it played in Europe's third-tier Conference League. Villa played in the Champions League this season.

UEFA fined financially troubled French club Lyon 12.5 million euros ($14.7 million) with future fines conditional on meeting targets.

The club owned by American businessman John Textor is fighting an appeal case next week against being demoted from Ligue 1 amid its financial turmoil, and could yet be excluded by UEFA from the Europa League next season.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

FILE - Joan Laporta celebrates his victory after elections at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, March 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort, File)

FILE - Chelsea owner Todd Boehly looks out from the stands before the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge Stadium in London, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Ian Walton, File)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)