Uefa’s move on multi-club ownership and how it affects English football

Posted on by Tony Attwood

 

By Tony Attwood

A central point of the argument that is made in Untold is that football news reporting in England is both biased and selective.   For example Manchester City’s owners are neither suing the MLS over its salary cap rules.  Meanwhjile the Spanish League seems to be quiet on two clubs from the City Group playing in the Champions League (Man C and Girona) next season.

However, it is expected that UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body will convene to determine whether or not both these teams can register for next season’s Champions League.  And the answer will probably be “yes” since last season Girona was granted a licence to compete in European club competitions.

Swiss Ramble has picked up on this too, noting “UEFA’s rules around multi-club ownership and particularly the recent clarification of those rules will present challenges to a number of clubs, including the two Manchester giants: Manchester City and Girona; Manchester United and Nice.”

Onefootball indeed has raised the issue in its article, “Have two clubs with the same owner played in the Champions League before?”

Raising such questions looks hopeful for the integrity of football, although Uefa has a long history of caving in when money is at stake, as they did over the issue of RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg, both (rather obviously) financed by Red Bull, who Uefa noted as being influenced by their owners when they both qualified for the 2017 Champions League and the same group in the following year’s Europa League.

In fact when we come to look at it these conflicts of interest, clubs owned or influenced by the same financial institutions are everywhere: Aston Villa and Vitoria Guimaraes, Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise, and AC Milan and Toulouse… and all were allowed to compete in various UEFA competitions despite sharing owners.

Indeed four months back The i suggested that the City Group were going to be forced to cut their links with Girona, as it became clear that Girona were likely to qualify for the Champions League.   But again nothing happened.

So it looks like the Red Bull model, in which the clubs put out a statement that the owners are not influencing them, is enough to satisfy Uefa.

Although in the case of Aston Villa who are owned by V Sports, that organisation reduced its share of Vitória S.C when both clubs qualified for the Europa Conference League.

But so far Uefa has not tackled the sort of issue that arises when two clubs from the same “group” appear in the Champions League.

However the “Club Licensing Benchmarking Report” still insists that where there is even “influence” over more than one club then the clubs cannot compete in the same competition.  The definition of “influence” thus becomes important and this is where Uefa has created the get-out clause that the City Group needed.  For ludicrously “influence” is then defined as being a “decisive influence” in the club’s decision-making.   The City Group only own 47% of Girona, and that seems to allow the two clubs to play in the same competition.  The will undoubtedly claim that in the Man C case the board does not influence the manager.

The situation got murkier with the record signing of Sávio by Troyes in France, but then never paying for him, while the club itself was relegated for the second season running.  He was in fact loaned to Girona (and others) with multiple suspicions voiced over who actually had control of Troyes.  Uefa seemed bemused and did nothing.

In fact, by updating the rules on 1 May this year Uefa has made it a lot easier for loans and unpaid transfers between linked clubs to take place, and it is probably this development that has given the owners of Manchester City the feeling that they can continue on their present course.

The fact is that the introduction of the Uefa Conference added getting on for another €1bn in income for Uefa, and that really tells us where all this is going.  Uefa and Manchester City are walking hand in hand along the same money generating path.

The official view of Uefa seems to be that if the City Group reduce its stake in Manchester City to 30%, or places all its shares in a blind trust everything will be ok.  The original thought was that if this were not done Girona would be relegated to the Europa League.  The ultimatum date on that has past, but it appears nothing happened.  If I missed the outcome perhaps you could (politely) tell me where I can read about it.  Otherwise, I think we know what is going on: Uefa issues an ultimatum, time passes, nothing happens, the media stay quiet.

The battle against the City Group is therefore not one that is taking place in England alone.   Indeed in June 2022 the president of La Liga Javier Tebas repeatedly attacked both Manchester City and PSG, whom he called “state-financed clubs”, saying, “La Liga understands that the irregular financing of these clubs is carried out, either through direct money injections or through sponsorship and other contracts that do not correspond to market conditions or make economic sense.”

Uefa’s position itself has been irreversibly compromised after it lost its Court of Arbitration in Sport case against Manchester City by being out of time in handing over documents to the court.  Either that was a deliberate ploy to help Manchester City, or it was such gross incompetence by Uefa that Uefa itself should have been wound up as a competent body.   The media however simply reported the matter as Manchester City winning.   Uefa followed that up by doubling the amount clubs could lose over a three-year period, and beyond that allowed extra losses for clubs in “good financial health”.

None of this looks pretty, for it increasingly looks (although of course cannot be proven) as if Uefa is now the lapdog of the City Group, PSG and Red Bull.

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7 Replies to “Uefa’s move on multi-club ownership and how it affects English football”

  1. All this helps keep my conviction an ESL is the solution to the situation.
    With salary and spending cap.
    With ownership rules (1 owner, 1 club)
    Without PGMOL….

  2. Tony.

    Hope you are well

    I have been watching this story develop over the last few weeks and yes it’s a selfish point as having read the rules (UEFA) it’s pretty clear that City should play in the CL.and Girona relegated to the EL. Similarly Utd should be regulated to the ELConference and us, Chelsea, promoted to the EL.

    Within those rules the only % mentioned is 10% but that’s more about ins or entities controlled ultimately by those individuals have to be registered at UEFA.

    The key is that any notified individual/entity is thought to have control if they have basically a say in two club’s operations making club management decisions.

    The deadline for clubs like City &Utd to make representations to UEFa was 3 June and whilst there has been a lot of assumptions I haven’t , like you, seen anything official yet.

  4. @Tim,

    thanks for the piece… so if I want to make it short :

    – City115 and Girona all is fine, no issue…. nothing to see, they can both play in the CL
    – United and Nice, no way…. a blind trust to manage Nice so both can play in the EL

    This is a joke… or rather this is no joke, just a nation state showing in can run circles around any billionaire….
    Not that I feel sorry for the billionnaire…. but for football.

  5. Chris / TIM

    The linked article still isn’t confirming yes it’s suggesting that all work out for the two Manchester clubs but as far as I can see it’s still not confirmed

  7. Chris
    It really is time , for a Super league to be implemented , hanging around waiting for the worst to happen and hoping it doesn’t happen will get us nowhere . So, its goodbye to UEFA Fifa FA nd the PGMO and hello to all those European sides who want new European tournaments we’ll keep the football league divisions in mind with promotion and relegation places as they are now , a salary cap could be set
    in place . For a certainty ANY club with ties to other clubs will be told , sever the ties , either that or you are not welcome in this new setup .
    And this time the ruling body will be drawn from all clubs and that too will be drawn from a different set of clubs every 5 years . No messing about , no looking for wriggle room , abide by the rules or you’re out . No appeals , no armies of lawyers
    Oh did I mention that Arsenal having set this up and having proved to be a club of integrity shall be permanent members of the governing body. That is all, make it so.

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