For football’s new generation of super-rich — risk-loving billionaires, U.S. hedge funds, wealthy Gulf states — the appeal of the new model of team ownership lies in its simple strategy.
These wealthy new owners have integrated not just one team, but multiple teams and hundreds of players into a vast multi-club network, believing they can leverage efficiency, best practices and numbers to achieve success on the pitch.
Energy drink maker Red Bull pioneered the model. Manchester City, the English champions funded by the wealth of the United Arab Emirates, has expanded through its City Football Group. Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of chemicals giant INEOS, brought him to Manchester United after acquiring a major stake in the club last year.
But one of the biggest draws of multi-club ownership now faces a major challenge: European football’s governing bodies are changing the rules.
European soccer leaders say the problem is that matches between teams controlled by the same ownership group could undermine the fairness of the continental competition and open the door to self-dealing in soccer’s $7 billion-a-year player trade market.
European football’s chief executive, Aleksander Ceferin, tried to bridge the divide. In a podcast interview last year, he said the multi-club model posed a danger to the sport, although he courted investors by suggesting rules on such ownership could be relaxed under the Champions League’s new format.
The current hot topic involves one of the most famous stories of the recently concluded European football season: Spanish club Girona and its talented 20-year-old Brazilian striker Savio.
Girona finished third in the Spanish league last season and are in their fourth year in the country’s top flight. That performance earned the team a place in next season’s Champions League, Europe’s richest club competition, and attracted the attention of some of the continent’s biggest clubs to Girona’s top talent.
Manchester City had an advantage when it came to signing Savio. Its owner is the brother of the UAE’s ruler and the single largest stake holder in Girona. As such, there seems to be no doubt as to where the budding star will be next in Girona. The news was all but confirmed in February, when Fabrizio Romano, a social media influencer who specializes in player trade news, announced that the deal was complete.
“Manchester City have signed all the documents for the signing of Savio from July 1st,” he declared in a message to his more than 20 million followers on X, which began with a red siren emoji.
However, Savio’s rights do not actually belong to Girona. The player is on loan from French club Troyes, which is also a member of City Football Group.
Such multiple controls have become commonplace in world football over the past five years: figures from European football’s governing body UEFA have identified more than 180 teams around the world employing more than 6,500 players, which have now become multi- Part of the club network.
This poses a problem for UEFA. In the past, it has focused primarily on how team ownership affects its competition, ruling that a single owner cannot control multiple teams in the same tournament.
But with multi-club control increasing and critics complaining about the integrity of Europe’s biggest competition – not to mention concerns that storied, proud clubs are being reduced to feeder teams – UEFA has introduced temporary rule changes .
Under the revised rules, if an owner reduces his stake in one of the clubs to below 30%, both teams will be allowed to participate in UEFA competitions, provided both teams also ensure Each operates independently and does not have shared board members or other members.
These rules only apply to One season, allowing owners more time to divest their stakes in competing clubs at a lower threshold than required by UEFA.
Such an arrangement was struck by the American owners of AC Milan and French side Toulouse last season, prompting reports in November that Redbirds, which controls both teams, was seeking a buyer for Toulouse.
However, the revised player movement rules will be stricter. Clubs involved in multi-club ownership arrangements will be prohibited from loaning or trading any players between teams competing in the same competition. (Milan and several other teams also applied this rule last season.)
This means Savio’s much-anticipated arrival at Premier League champions Manchester City will have to be put on hold if both City and Girona want to compete in next season’s Champions League. He can still play, but it’s unlikely he will do so in a sky-blue Manchester City shirt.
(The same issue could affect a move to Manchester United for Jean-Clair Todibo, a defender at the French club Nice owned by Mr Ratcliffe. Both United and Nice have been offered the opportunity to join another Qualification for one UEFA competition, followed by the Europa League for both clubs.
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 compete in the Champions League. The deadline for all clubs to submit final paperwork was last Monday.
UEFA declined to comment on the proposed deal, but a final decision on the team’s eligibility is expected to be announced next month.
