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UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has warned Sir Jim Ratcliffe that ownership of two or more clubs participating in the same European competition is not an option amidst fears that Manchester United could be banned from continental club tournaments.
During the United takeover process, while Ratcliffe was in competition with Qatari royal Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, the issue of multi-club ownership was a big area of contention – Sheikh Jassim due to Qatar’s links with Paris Saint-Germain and Ratcliffe because of INEOS’ ownership of OGC-Nice.
The current UEFA rules under Article 5 define “multi-club ownership” regulations. These rules effectively bar two teams under a common ownership umbrella from participating in the same European competition.
For a while, this matter had been forgotten but with Ratcliffe now closing in on the ratification of his partial investment into United by the Premier League, it has reared its ugly head again.
The INEOS billionaire struck a deal with the Glazers that will see him granted full control of the Red Devils’ sporting operations.
The British businessman has not yet received the green light to officially start working at Old Trafford, but this hasn’t stopped him from making major moves behind the scenes.
Over the weekend, news broke that Manchester City’s Omar Berrada is set to become United’s next chief executive. More appointments are incoming.
The other available option for both outfits – Nice and United – to compete in Europe at the same time would be if United qualified directly for the group stages and Nice were to finish in the Europa Conference League spots. The vice versa is also true.
At the moment, Nice’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League appear more promising than United’s prospects.
The French giants sit in second place in Ligue 1, eight points below table leaders PSG and two points clear of fourth-placed Monaco.
United, on the other hand, are in eighth position with 32 points, 11 points adrift of Tottenham Hotspur in fourth.
Last year, Ceferin strongly suggested that UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership would be scrapped in order to align with football’s constantly changing landscape.
However, in a recent interview with The Telegraph, Ceferin revealed that a stakeholders meeting was held on the issue but a conclusive decision was not reached.
He said, “You know football. Big English club can lose 3-0 to a small Portuguese club, if you want, because they have a bad day. Imagine that it’s the same ownership? [You would] say, ‘Look, your competition is fixed’, and then you start losing everything. This is my biggest problem where I don’t have a solution.”
“We could always say, ‘Okay, you can do it under these and these and these conditions’. But full control of two or more is a no-go.”
The 56-year-old added, ” That’s, for now, my opinion. We didn’t come to a concrete solution [during the meeting].”
It’s certainly an area that needs clarifying going forward to avoid the possibility of United finding themselves in a precarious position in the future.
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