Chelsea and Aston Villa have both been fined for failing to comply with financial regulations put in place by European football’s governing body

Chelsea have been hit with a staggering £78.5m double whammy after breaching UEFA’s strict financial rules.

The Blues have been hit with a £69m fine – £51m of which is suspended – by UEFA’s First Chamber committee for breaching football earnings rules. They have also been hit with a £9.5m rule for breaking squad cost rules which state you cannot pay more than 80 per cent on players, contracts and agent costs.

It is one of UEFA’s biggest ever punishments – the biggest if the suspension on fines are lifted by further breaches – and could also see Chelsea restricted on new player registrations for next season’s Champions League.

The UEFA rules are different – and tighter on these issues – to the Premier League Profit and Sustainability Rules which meant Chelsea were not in breach.

UEFA referred in their judgement on the football earnings rule: “In assessing the clubs’ compliance with the football earnings rule, the CFCB placed particular attention on transactions involving the sale of tangible or intangible assets, the exchange of players (so called “swaps”) and the transfers of players between related parties.”

Chelsea have been contacted for comment.

They have effectively got four years to comply and that is why the main chunk is suspended.

Premier League rivals Aston Villa have also been hit with a fine, of £9.5m. Again, further breaches could put the Villans at risk of a further £15m fine in future.

Villa have been hit with a two-tiered penalty after failing to meet the governing body’s targets. The first is a £4.3m punishment for breaching the earnings limit, while the second is a £5.2m fine for non-compliance with UEFA’s squad cost rule.

Villa were able to escape more severe breaches after selling the club’s women’s team to a related company in recent days – an action previously taken by Chelsea, and a loophole which Premier League clubs recently voted against closing.

Barcelona, Lyon and Roma have all also been sanctioned by European football’s governing body.