For soccer’s new generation of ultra-wealthy investors – risk-conscious billionaires, American hedge funds, wealthy Gulf states – the appeal of a new model of team ownership lay in its simple strategy.
By bringing together not just one team, but several teams and hundreds of players. extensive multi-club networksthese newly wealthy owners believed they could leverage efficiency, best practices, and volume to succeed in the field.
Red Bull, the energy drink maker, pioneered this model. Manchester City, the English champion financed by the wealth of the United Arab Emirates, oversized it through its City Football Group. Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of chemicals giant INEOS, brought it to Manchester United when he acquired a major stake in the club last year.
But one of the biggest attractions of multi-club ownership now faces a major challenge: European football’s governing body is changing the rules.
The problem, European football leaders say, is that matches between teams controlled by the same ownership group could undermine the fairness of continental competitions and open the door to internal dealings in the $7 billion football market. dollars per year.
Aleksander Ceferin, European football’s top administrator, tried to bridge the gap. In a podcast interview last year, he suggested that the multi-club model represented a danger for sporteven as he wooed investors by saying the rules on such property could be mitigated below the new format of the Champions League.
The current hot spot concerns one of the most famous stories of the recently concluded European football season: the Spanish club Girona and their talented 20-year-old Brazilian striker named Sávio.
Girona finished third in the Spanish league last season, their fourth year in the country’s top division. The performance earned the team a place next season in the Champions League, Europe’s richest club competition, and brought Girona’s top talent to the attention of some of the continent’s biggest clubs.
When it came to recruiting Sávio, Manchester City had an advantage. Its owner, the brother of the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, also has the largest stake in Girona. The next step for the Girona star therefore seemed to be in no doubt. The news was all but confirmed in February, when social media influencer Fabrizio Romano, who specializes in player trade news, said the deal was done.
“Manchester City have signed all the documents to sign Sávio from July 1,” he declared in a message addressed to his more than 20 million followers on it started with a red mermaid emoji.
However, the rights to Sávio did not actually belong to Girona. The player was loaned by French club Troyes, also a member of the City Football Group.
These types of multiple participations have become commonplace in world football over the past five years: data from UEFA, European football’s governing body, has identified more than 180 teams worldwide, employing more than 6,500 players, who are now part of multi-club networks.
This created a problem for UEFA. In the past, it had focused primarily on how team ownership affected its competitions, ruling that a single owner couldn’t control multiple teams in the same event.
But with the rise of multi-club control and critics complaining about the integrity of Europe’s biggest tournaments – not to mention fears that proud and legendary clubs could be reduced to mere feeder teams – UEFA introduced temporary rule changes.
According to the revised regulations, if an owner reduces his stake in one of his clubs to less than 30 percent, both teams would be allowed to participate in UEFA tournaments, provided that the teams also ensure that they are managed separately, without common board members or other direct commercial or sporting links.
These rules will only be granted for one season, which gives owners more time to sell a stake in a competing club below the threshold required by UEFA.
Such an accommodation was made last season for the American owners of AC Milan and French team Toulouse, leading to reports in November that Red Bird, the company that controls both teams, was looking for a buyer for Toulouse.
The revised rules on player movement will be strict, however. Clubs involved in multi-club ownership deals would not be allowed to loan or swap players between their teams if they were competing in the same competition. (This rule was also in force for Milan and several other teams last season.)
This would mean Sávio’s much-heralded arrival at Premier League champions Manchester City would have to be put on hold if City and Girona were to play in the Champions League next season. He would still be allowed to take part, but it would be unlikely he would be able to do so in a sky blue City uniform.
(The same issue could affect a possible decision by Jean-Clair Todibo, defender of French club Nice – owned by Mr Ratcliffe – at Manchester United. United and Nice have both qualified for another UEFA competition, the Europa League, next season. “We understand the UEFA regulations,” Mr Ratcliffe’s company, INEOS, said in a statement, adding: “Our aim is for both clubs to play in the Europa League. We are now awaiting UEFA’s decision .”)
City Football Group said it had been in contact with UEFA officials for months to find a way to allow Manchester City and Girona to participate in the Champions League. All clubs had until last Monday to submit the final documentation.
UEFA declined to comment on the proposed deal, but a final decision on the teams’ eligibility is expected to be announced next month.
