UEFA is hearing three cases
How multi-club owners devour football
7/5/2023 2:52 p.m
Investors and European football – it seems a great love. More and more clubs are owned by the same people – this is only allowed under certain conditions due to the UEFA rules for international competition. But it looks as if borders are being pushed back.
Two weeks time. And about 50,000 kilometers flight distance. The owner of the new Champions League winners Manchester City would have to plan that much if he ever wanted to visit all of his 13 football clubs in succession. The “City Football Group” of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi now includes teams from five different continents: from Mumbai City FC in India to Melbourne City, New York City and FC Palermo in Italy.
One person or company owning multiple clubs is a prominent trend in professional football. This week he is busy with the European association UEFA. Soon he could also reach the German Football League (DFL).
The UEFA regulations state that no one may influence more than one participating club in the three European competitions, the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. Because: “If you own two clubs in the same competition, you could instruct one to lose because the other should win,” said association boss Aleksander Čeferin in an interview on the YouTube channel of the former Manchester United in March -Pro Gary Neville.
Three cases concern UEFA
Only last year, UEFA itself determined in a study that more than 180 clubs worldwide already belong to a structure like the “City Football Group”. And that makes it clear: In practice, the European Cup rule is becoming increasingly difficult to enforce. Specifically, a UEFA control body (CFCB) is dealing with three cases this week: AC Milan / Toulouse FC, Aston Villa / Vitoria Guimaraes and Brighton & Hove Albion / Union Saint-Gilloise.
After FC Toulouse, the American investment company RedBird Capital also bought the 19-time Italian champions AC Milan last year. And Milan then qualified again for the Champions League. However, Toulouse surprisingly won the French Cup and thus actually acquired the right to start in the Europa League. However, two RedBird clubs in a European Cup season are not allowed.
In order to comply with the regulations, three managers of the company recently resigned from the board of FC Toulouse. This is intended to give the impression that the owners of the club have no influence on day-to-day business. UEFA wants to decide by Friday whether that’s enough for them or whether the French will be kicked out of the Europa League. The situation is similar in the other two cases. “We have to reconsider the current rules,” said Čeferin in anticipation of more and more such conflicts. And there is a lot to be said for it: he wants to soften the rules.
Red Bull has been splitting since 2018
UEFA was sharply criticized for its handling of the sporting precedent in 2018: At that time, Rasenballsport Leipzig and FC Red Bull Salzburg played against each other in the Europa League. The beverage manufacturer Red Bull was the sole shareholder of Salzburg from 2005 to 2015 and still holds 99 percent of the shares in RasenBallsport Leipzig GmbH. At the time, UEFA ruled that there was sufficient unbundling between the two clubs. The “integrity of the competition” is not violated.
However, the example of Red Bull shows that despite the 50+1 rule, which limits the influence of investors, there are also clubs in German professional football that belong to multi-club constructs. Red Bull still own teams in Brazil and New York. The investment company 777 Partners joined Hertha BSC this year. The Berliners are the seventh football club in the world to be wholly or partially owned by the Americans.
Hertha President Kay Bernstein said to ntv.de: “My socialization, my imprint, my set of values, my idea of how I want football didn’t make it easy.” But Bernstein also sees advantages of this connection: “A new perspective, a new exchange and also new friction.”
“A Vulgar Satellite Club”
It is precisely this synergy that many see critically with this model, but others see it as an opportunity. Multiple clubs under one roof means these clubs can support each other in scouting, training and developing players. However, some of these players also push themselves far above or further below the market value, depending on their needs.
The fans of affected clubs primarily fear a loss of identity for their club. When the American owners of AFC Bournemouth also joined Lorient in France last winter, one Ultra group wrote in an open letter: “There is no question that we will become a vulgar satellite club, a simple training ground for our English parent club .”
In Germany, the DFL has stipulated that in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 no one may “directly or indirectly hold shares in more than three corporations”. Volkswagen AG will soon reach this limit. You already own VfL Wolfsburg Fußball GmbH and, via the VW subsidiary Audi, also 8.33 percent of FC Bayern Munich AG. Porsche wants to join VfB Stuttgart this summer – this AG is also part of the Volkswagen Group. The DFL will have a problem if FC Ingolstadt should also be promoted to the second division. Because its shareholder is called Audi.