Manchester United supporters have been waiting long enough for Sir Jim Ratcliffe's arrival to be ratified by the Premier League and finally, that confirmation has been announced. Ratcliffe and INEOS' minority acquisition of the Reds is a changing of the guard at Old Trafford and will be celebrated by those who wished for the Glazers' oversight on the football project to end.
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While the American family remaining at the club was not the outcome most supporters wanted, this is being deemed as the first step towards full control being relinquished. At this stage, INEOS are no strangers to acquiring football clubs into their wide-ranging sports portfolio. Swiss club FC Lausanne-Sport and French club Nice are also in the project run by Ratcliffe's group.
UEFA's rules state two clubs who are partially owned by the same person or organisation cannot compete in the same competition. Therefore, if United and Nice qualified for the Champions League, one of those teams would not be able to compete in Europe. The only scenario where two teams owned by the same group can both play in Europe is if one qualifies for the Champions League and the other makes it into the Europa Conference League. In this instance, neither side could face each other in UEFA competitions.
Should United and Nice both finish in the Champions League qualification spots thanks to their league position, the club with the higher league finish would make it into Europe. If they qualified for different competitions, the one who reached the more prestigious tournament is allowed to advance. If they finished in the same position, it would come down to the coefficient rankings between the Premier League and Ligue 1. But if both clubs do qualify for Europe, UEFA will initially open proceedings against them through their Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) and that will give them a chance to prove they do comply with the rules.
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What has Aleksander Ceferin said?
Speaking to Gary Neville on The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet, the current UEFA president hinted the multi-club ownership rules could be reviewed soon. Ceferin explained: "We are not thinking about Manchester United only. "We’ve had five or six owners of clubs who want to buy another club. We have to see what to do. The options are that it stays like that or that we allow them to play in the same competition. I’m not sure yet. "We have to speak about these regulations and see what to do about it. There is more and more interest in this multi-club ownership. We shouldn’t just say no for the investments for multi-club ownership, but we have to see what kind of rules we set in that case, because the rules have to be strict."
