UEFA President hints at potential rule-change that could affect Girona going into Champions League
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has stated that they are looking into rule changes over multi-club ownership in order to prevent teams with the same owners playing each other. With Girona mounting a challenge for a first ever Champions League qualification this season, it could see them in the same draw as Manchester City.
Girona are part-owned by the City Football Group, who also own City. The owners hold a 33% stake in Girona, and the pair have a number of links, with Yan Couto and Savio on loan from City Group teams, and Yangel Herrera signed from New York City FC.
“You know football. Big English club can lose 3-0 to a small Portuguese club, if you want, because they have a bad day,” Ceferin told The Telegraph.
“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.
“That’s, for now, my opinion. We didn’t come to a concrete solution.”
Other examples that could come into to issues are RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg, who are both owned by the Austrian drinks company. Chelsea’s ownership group also recently purchased a majority stake in Strasbourg. New shareholder at Manchester United Jim Ratcliffe is also the President of chemicals company INEOS, who own Nice in France.
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