UEFA have now published their ‘Summary of the Settlement Agreement with Newcastle United FC’
Two things to make clear before I go on:
Firstly, yes this is another article talking about the accounts and finances which is very tedious, when we all would much rather be talking about the transfer window and what happens on the pitch.
Secondly, this is all absolutely vital to understand, because it absolutely dictates the transfer window and what happens on the pitch.
At the end of June 2026, UEFA named nine clubs that had broken SCR (Squad Cost Ratio) rules (and you can read below what we published on The Mag on 30 June 2026 about this).
Amongst the nine clubs were four Premier League clubs, these were Aston Villa, Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United.
For Villa and Chelsea it was the second year in a row they were named and shamed by UEFA and punishments handed down, for Forest and Newcastle it was a first naming and shaming and punishment.
The Premier League have now moved from PSR (Profit and Sustainability Rules) to SCR (Squad Cost Ratio). The PSR model punished Premier League clubs if in any three year period they had losses of more than £105m. Certain costs weren’t included in the calculations, such as spending on infrastructure (building/redeveloping your stadium and training ground) for example. We saw a number of clubs including Everton have points deducted.
Broadly speaking, the Premier League moving to SCR (Squad Cost Ratio) means that EPL clubs are limited to spending up to 85% of their total revenues over a three year period on transfer fees and wages. If a club breaks the 85% limit they can be fined by the Premier League and if they severely break the new SCR rules then points can be deducted.
What wasn’t given a lot of coverage is that of all this is pretty much irrelevant for any Premier League clubs hoping to regularly play in UEFA competitions. UEFA already had SCR in place and it is even more severe, clubs can only spend up to 70% of their total revenues over a three year period and if they break the limits they can be fined, then if they continue to do so they can be banned from UEFA competitions.
In summer 2025, it was revealed that both Aston Villa and Chelsea had broken the three year UEFA 70% SCR limits and had been fined AND entered into Settlement Agreements with UEFA.
These settlement agreements lay down strict criteria for a number of years what will happen if these clubs break the rules again. Broadly speaking, they will be fined again if overspending above the 70% limit on transfer fees and wages by up to €20m (£17m). If they overspend by more than €20m then they can be banned the next time they qualify for a UEFA competition. At the end of June 2026 it was revealed that Aston Villa and Chelsea had both once again overspent above the 70% limit but only enough to trigger another fine, not enough to be banned the next time they qualify for a UEFA competition.
So this is where we are at now with Newcastle United. We have been fined for breaking UEFA 70% SCR limits across the last three years AND have had to reach a Settlement Agreement with UEFA, basically the same as Villa and Chelsea.
So if Newcastle United at the end of the 2026/27 season are found to have exceeded the latest three year period of allowed 70% SCR spending on transfer fees and wages, they face another fine if the overspend is €20m or less, if it is by more than €20m then Newcastle could/would be banned from the Champions League (or Europa League/Conference League) the next time they qualify.
So this is where these financial rules massively impact on this summer’s Newcastle United transfer activity.
We have seen players (Tonali and Gordon especially) sold for massive transfer fees and getting their wages off the books, then bringing in young players on far lower transfer fees and wages. I saw somebody sum it up as by selling Anthony Gordon that brought Newcastle United back under the three year UEFA 70% limits for when we get to the end of this 2026/27 season, then the Sandro Tonali sale then helps enable Newcastle United to bring in the necessary number of signings to rebuild the squad for the new season. Especially when you consider others such as Trippier, Ramsdale and Krafth have also left.
The thing is as well, with no Champions League football this coming 2026/27 season, or indeed any European football, the Newcastle United turnover will surely be lower than the 2025/26 season. It sounds like Newcastle United don’t need to sell Bruno Guimaraes (certainly not for £60m or less!) in order to stay within the UEFA SCR limits but then if an offer came that did meet Newcastle’s valuation, not impossible United’s highest earner could be sold if it was deemed necessary to enable a number of other signings.
Aston Villa have found themselves in very much the same position as Newcastle United, trapped by the financial rules that mean you need to have far higher turnover to be allowed to compete on transfer fees and wages, yet the Premier League and especially UEFA rules prevent you spending the money on transfer fees and wages that could then take you to those far larger turnovers in the longer term. So even though Aston Villa have qualified to play in the Champions League, they are very limited in what they can spend this summer (unless selling major players) because at the end of the 2026/27 season they could find themselves banned by UEFA from the next European competition they qualify for.
The fact that even Chelsea despite all of their advantages got caught out by the UEFA 70% SCR rules, sums up just how restrictive this all is.
As things stand, the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and to an extent Tottenham (as well as Chelsea), have such huge financial advantages over the rest, partly through Premier League rules but even more so due to the UEFA ones.
It is all just horrendous really. The impact of UEFA felt even more when they changed their rules on how money is divided between clubs competing in European competitions, in favour of the most established clubs. So when both Manchester United and Newcastle United were knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage in the 2023/24 season, Man U picked up around £20m more than United purely because of what they had done in previous seasons in UEFA competitions compared to Newcastle.
You can read the full UEFA Settlement Agreement with Newcastle United here but I have covered the major points above.
I think there are a lot of reasons to question the (lack of?) actions of the Newcastle United owners on many things but when it comes to these SCR rules on spending, especially the UEFA 70% limits, it puts serious pressures on this summer’s transfer activity and indeed the same in future windows.
The information that we published on The Mag on 30 June 2026
UEFA have named nine clubs that they have punished for breaking SCR (Squad Cost Ratio) rules.
The official UEFA statement naming four Premier League clubs.
The other five of the nine are from France, Turkey, Greece and Italy.
As well as Newcastle United, fellow Premier League clubs Chelsea, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest have also been slapped with UEFA fines after breaching Squad Cost Ratio rules.
The four Premier League clubs have also been warned about their future conduct by UEFA.
The official UEFA’s statement on 30 June 2026 reading: “The CFCB First Chamber found that Aston Villa FC (ENG), Chelsea FC (ENG), Newcastle United FC (ENG), Nottingham Forest FC (ENG), OGC Nice (FRA), RC Strasbourg (FRA), AEK Athens (GRE), ACF Fiorentina (ITA) and Fenerbahce SK (TUR) breached the squad cost rule by reporting a squad cost ratio above 70 per cent for the 2025 calendar year. As a result, each club was imposed a fine calculated in proportion to the percentage points above the defined limit and the size of the club’s squad cost excess.”
This time last year Aston Villa and Chelsea were punished by UEFA for similar breaches and had to commit to putting things right regarding future compliance. Or else face far bigger fines and potentially more serious punishments.
Those Aston Villa and Chelsea punishments handed down by UEFA in July 2025:
Chelsea had to pay a total of £27m in fines and were told they could pay up to £52m more if they breach their four-year agreement with the CFCB.
Aston Villa had to pay £9.5m in fines and were told failure to comply with their three-year settlement could lead to a further penalty of up to £13m more.
Both Premier League clubs broke UEFA’s football earnings rule and squad cost rule. Villa and Chelsea had a squad cost ratio (percentage of a club’s income spent on the first-team squad) of between 80 and 90 per cent for 2024. The squad cost ratio had become even more restrictive with UEFA now limiting it to a maximum of 70 per cent.
Both Aston Villa and Chelsea agreed to a restriction on registering new players for UEFA competitions in the 2025/26 season – unless the value of new signings added to their squads is recouped in sales. For Chelsea, this measure will also be in place for the 2026/2027 season.
The above was the situation and punishments published by UEFA in July 2025 for Chelsea and Aston Villa.
Now this is the case on 30 June 2026, what UEFA have said and done about those two clubs and their further breaches..
Aston Villa
Of the four Premier League clubs they have been hit hardest, hit with a £19.4m fine. They will also face a restriction on the registration of new players on their squad list for next season’s Champions League. Villa have seen £12.9m of the fine suspended and must significantly decrease their squad cost ratio in the 2026/27 season. That amount rolled over from the suspended punishment in 2025 when the club was fined £9.5m with a further £12.9m based on compliance over three years.
Chelsea
They have now been fined £2.6m, of which £861,000 is suspended (The Chelsea owners also control/own Strasbourg and they were handed the biggest fine of all of the clubs involved in UEFA’s report with a £21.54m fine).
An official Chelsea statement today (30 June 2026): “Chelsea can confirm that the UEFA Club Monitoring process for season 2025/26 has concluded and UEFA has today published its outcome concerning the Club’s compliance position in relation to the squad cost ratio for the 2025 calendar year. Following proactive and transparent engagement with UEFA, the UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) recognised the improving trend in the Club’s squad cost ratio for the 2025 calendar year. However, as the 70 per cent threshold for UEFA’s Squad Cost Ratio was narrowly exceeded, a fine will be paid.”
Nottingham Forest
As for Forest, they have been ordered to pay £2.2m.
Newcastle United
United released an official statement on Tuesday night acknowledging the UEFA settlement and punishments. Newcastle United fined £5.2million and have entered into a future compliance agreement.
For the three-year period ending June 2025, United were found to have exceeded UEFA’s football earnings threshold and went over the 70 per cent squad cost ratio (SCR) across the calendar year of 2025.
The Newcastle United official statement reading: “Newcastle United has entered into a settlement agreement with UEFA following a breach of its Financial Sustainability Regulations in the three-year period ending June 2025. Following an overspend in relation to UEFA’s Football Earnings threshold, the club has worked closely and constructively with the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) to swiftly resolve the matter, In addition, UEFA has determined that the club will pay a further €3m due to breaching UEFA’s 70 per cent Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) target in calendar year 2025. Newcastle United thanks UEFA for its careful consideration and is committed to full ongoing compliance.”
Even though they are not competing in European competitions in the 2026/27 season, it is the case that Chelsea, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest must still comply with the UEFA regulations.