A growing number of Premier League clubs are offloading their women’s teams to affiliated ownership groups in a bid to remain compliant with Profit and Sustainability Rules
Everton are the latest Premier League club to sell its women’s team to its parent owner, utilising a loophole in order to comply with Profit & Sustainability Rules (PSR).
Everton Women’s was acquired by Roundhouse Capital Holdings, an entity within the wider Friedkin Group. The Group is the current owner of the men’s team, having acquired the club in December 2024.
This women’s team will now operate as a standalone entity under the Friedkin Group’s ownership and could potentially see the team attract future investment from US suitors.
The fee for the women’s team was undisclosed, but reports from Sky Sports and BBC suggest this places Everton in good financial standing to comply with PSR this season.The previous financial year ended on June 30, 2025.
Premier League clubs can not exceed losses of £105m over a three-year financial period. Failure to comply with this ruling results in possible points deductions. Everton’s last financial statement, the year ending June 30, 2024, posted a loss of £53.2m.
Everton were one of the first clubs to be penalised for failing to comply with PSR during the 2021/22 and 2022/23 season, resulting in a six point deduction in November 2023 after successfully appealing an initial 10 point deduction. The club were also deducted two points in April 2024.
A common PSR loophole
The move for a parent owner of a Premier League team to sell its women’s team was first discovered as a loophole of the PSR by Chelsea’s owners BlueCo; Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly.
BlueCo fully acquired the Chelsea Women’s team for an undisclosed fee, which saw Chelsea’s pre-tax loss of £90m from the financial year ending 30 June 2024, turn into a pre-tax profit of £128.4 for the financial year ending 30 June, 2025.
Chelsea have found loopholes in PSR before. BlueCo were able to sell two hotels nearby Stamford Bridge for £76.5m, which the Premier League deemed was allowed due to being assets and traded at fair market value.
Recognising this as a means to circumvent financial regulations, Aston Villa became the second team to sell its women’s team to parent owner V Sports for a reported £55m.
Villa claimed the club were already PSR compliant before the women’s team acquisition, but agreeing a deal on the financial year deadline of June 30 made football finance expert Kieran Maguire believe otherwise.
Magiure spoke to TalkSport on the Villa women’s team deal at the time, believing this new loophole around PSR is a new “get-out-of-jail-free card”.
He said: “The loophole has been allowed to continue, which allows clubs to sell their women’s team, any real estate assets, and similar, to themselves – effectively setting up a separate company through which you can then sell these assets at a profit and book those for PSR purposes.
“Chelsea have employed it. We’ve seen other clubs employ it historically as well, which would allow them to sell the women’s team to a newly set-up company at a high fee, provided that high fee is accepted by the Premier League.
‘It’s going to be very much at the top end of the potential estimates, and that effectively is going to be pure profit because the women’s teams tend to be in the accounts at a relatively low value. That could be the get-out-of-jail-free card which would allow Villa to keep hold of their players and not have to sell them.”
UEFA takes different stance
While the Premier League has allowed women’s team sales to be part of profit margins for the club’s financial statements, UEFA is taking a stricter stance.
On July 4, the European football organisation confirmed it fined Chelsea $36.65m (€31.28m) and Aston Villa $12.88m (€11m) for breaching its Financial Sustainability Regulations, in large part due to the women’s team sales.
UEFA also outlined a financial roadmap for both clubs to abide by. This upcoming 2025/26 season will see Villa only able to post losses of up to $76.16m (€65m) and if this exceeds €85m, this could potentially result in the club being banned from UEFA competitions. The club is set to compete in the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League season.
For Chelsea, having already broken UEFA’s rules in 2024 and 2025, the club can not exceed its own loss cap throughout next season. Chelsea fall at risk of being fined a further $23.43m (€20m) if this is exceeded and also a potential ban. Chelsea will be competing in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League season.
For Everton, the club is not at risk of UEFA enforcement action as it has not qualified for any UEFA competition next season. However, if the club does qualify for either the Champions League, Europa League or UEFA Conference League, this could see UEFA take action as the women’s team sale was made during the current financial year.
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