Manchester United face Champions League ban after Sir Jim Ratcliffe takeover
Manchester United face the possibility of being banned from the Champions League next season because of Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is reportedly ready to buy a 25% stake (£1.3 billion) in Manchester United, which could be the first step in a staged takeover.
However, his company INEOS already owns French club Nice, and this could be raising issue for Manchester United’s hopes of playing Champions League football.
UEFA’s “multi-club ownership” rules say that both Man United and Nice could play in Europe next term only if one qualifies automatically for the expanded Champions League group stage and the other directly enters the Conference League.
Manchester United could face Champions League ban for next season
UEFA’s stance is ‘clear’, as both teams, controlled by the same ownership, must be prevented from facing each other in the same competition.
Furthermore, if both teams secure Champions League places in their respective leagues, then the team that finishes higher of the two will be awarded qualification. While, the other team will be banned from Europe.
Moreover, if both teams finish in the same position, then United would get the nod because of England’s ranking at the top of UEFA’s “access list.”
Nice currently sits second in the Ligue 1 standings, whereas Manchester United are sixth in the Premier League.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin explains multi-club ownership rules
During a conversation with ex-Manchester United captain Gary Neville, Aleksander Ceferin suggested that the multi-club ownership rules will soon be relaxed.
“We are not thinking about Manchester United only,” Ceferin revealed on the Overlap. We’ve had five or six owners of clubs who want to buy another club. We have to see what to do.
“From one point of view, it’s true if you are the owner of two clubs and they play in the same competition, you can say to one club to lose because you want the other to win. But for you, as a football player, do you think it’s so easy to do that, to tell a coach lose the match because the other wants to win?”
