diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/73577-regex-fix.yml b/changelogs/fragments/73577-regex-fix.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9f29da1a07f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/73577-regex-fix.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - Improved/fixed regular expressions in ``validate-modules/validate_modules/schema.py`` and ``utils/collection_loader/_collection_finder.py`` (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/73577).
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/collection_loader/_collection_finder.py b/lib/ansible/utils/collection_loader/_collection_finder.py
index be9c07e264e..393ddbee7b6 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/collection_loader/_collection_finder.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/collection_loader/_collection_finder.py
@@ -701,7 +701,7 @@ class AnsibleCollectionRef:
 
     # FIXME: tighten this up to match Python identifier reqs, etc
     VALID_SUBDIRS_RE = re.compile(to_text(r'^\w+(\.\w+)*$'))
-    VALID_FQCR_RE = re.compile(to_text(r'^\w+\.\w+\.\w+(\.\w+)*$'))  # can have 0-N included subdirs as well
+    VALID_FQCR_RE = re.compile(to_text(r'^\w+(\.\w+){2,}$'))  # can have 0-N included subdirs as well
 
     def __init__(self, collection_name, subdirs, resource, ref_type):
         """
diff --git a/test/lib/ansible_test/_data/sanity/validate-modules/validate_modules/schema.py b/test/lib/ansible_test/_data/sanity/validate-modules/validate_modules/schema.py
index 9e4cd427477..ecf63557f71 100644
--- a/test/lib/ansible_test/_data/sanity/validate-modules/validate_modules/schema.py
+++ b/test/lib/ansible_test/_data/sanity/validate-modules/validate_modules/schema.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ def isodate(v, error_code=None):
     return v
 
 
-COLLECTION_NAME_RE = re.compile('^([^.]+.[^.]+)$')
+COLLECTION_NAME_RE = re.compile(r'^([^.]+(\.[^.]+)+)$')
 
 
 def collection_name(v, error_code=None):
diff --git a/test/units/utils/collection_loader/test_collection_loader.py b/test/units/utils/collection_loader/test_collection_loader.py
index c8187676e60..425f770c772 100644
--- a/test/units/utils/collection_loader/test_collection_loader.py
+++ b/test/units/utils/collection_loader/test_collection_loader.py
@@ -722,6 +722,7 @@ def test_fqcr_parsing_valid(ref, ref_type, expected_collection,
     ('fqcn', 'expected'),
     (
         ('ns1.coll2', True),
+        ('ns1#coll2', False),
         ('def.coll3', False),
         ('ns4.return', False),
         ('assert.this', False),
@@ -742,6 +743,7 @@ def test_fqcn_validation(fqcn, expected):
     [
         ('no_dots_at_all_action', 'action', ValueError, 'is not a valid collection reference'),
         ('no_nscoll.myaction', 'action', ValueError, 'is not a valid collection reference'),
+        ('no_nscoll%myaction', 'action', ValueError, 'is not a valid collection reference'),
         ('ns.coll.myaction', 'bogus', ValueError, 'invalid collection ref_type'),
     ])
 def test_fqcr_parsing_invalid(ref, ref_type, expected_error_type, expected_error_expression):