Unai Emery is unlikely to change his costly actions despite a new sanction from the Premier League after the 2025-26 campaign.
That is according to former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider that Villa’s owners are unlikely to share the sentiment in B6.
The Villans had already been hit with a £19million fine from UEFA before being sanctioned by the Premier League this summer, as sanctions begin to build up.
Due to late kick-offs in nine of Villa’s Premier League matches in 2025-26, the Europa League champions have been fined another £550,000.
While that may seem like a drop in the ocean for a football club of Villa’s size, it is yet more money coming out of the owners’ pockets, rather than money going into the club.
These sanctions have sparked fears over multiple players’ futures at Villa Park, such as Morgan Rogers and Ezri Konsa, with Emery’s transfer plans likely to be impacted.
Unai Emery to choose team talks over new sanctions
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson believes that, despite the owners being frustrated by the situation, Emery is unlikely to care about another fine.
“The manager won’t care. The manager will be doing what he needs to do to get the players ready for the individual games,” he said.
“But the business side of the club will care that it’s an unnecessary amount of money that’s going out the door. You know, it’s not that easy to generate £550,000 of profit.
“It’s quite a lot of revenue required to generate £550,000. And so it will feel to the business side of the club that it’s just money that’s been thrown in the bin.
“But as I say, the manager will do what the manager wants to do and they may well breach again if they’re used to breaching.
“And does the penalty fit the crime? Well, those are the rules.”
Premier League already set precedent with late kick-offs
Former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett exclusively told Football Insider that the fine for late kick-offs deserves to be harsher. Those in B6 will be glad it isn’t.
In the summer of 2024, Manchester City were handed a fine of over £2m due to their build-up of late kick-offs, with another £1m sanction arriving a year later.
It is fully understandable why Hackett believes these figures should be higher as well. The Premier League have to follow strict broadcasting timelines.
Should the matches be off by even a few seconds, adverts and stoppages in the broadcast elsewhere in the world can cause problems for those watching.
Despite all of this, Emery clear feels it is important to keep his players in the dressing room a little bit longer, rather than get them out on the pitch in time.
