Current Premier League and European champions Manchester City are on the brink of a seclusion away from Europe next season should they not win the Premier League this term.Â
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side could be disqualified from participating in the Champions League next season due to the club’s multi-model ownership structure.
The Premier League champions faces a delicate situation with their sister club Girona, in the run for qualification to the Champions League next season. Sighting, should Girona win the Spanish Laliga and Man City lose the Premier League, Pep Guarliola’s team might not make it to Europe on the grounds of a UEFA restriction.
Having qualified for Europe’s top competition for 13 years running and advanced to the tournament’s knockout stage in 11 of those years, this update comes unexpectedly and as a worry to the owners, City Football Group.
It appears CFG owns a 47% stake in Girona, according to reports. And as the case may be, UEFA regulations on two teams with the same ownership cannot play in the same UEFA competition.
In the event that both teams finish in second place, the team with the greatest club coefficient rating would be eligible. That, in this case, would be Manchester City.
However, if Girona win La Liga and City finish second in the Premier League, the Spanish outfit would play in next term’s Champions League and City would drop into the Europa League.
At present the latter scenario is not beyond the realms of possibility, with Girona top of La Liga and City five points adrift of top spot in the Premier League.
The links between City and Girona are undeniable. In August 2017, the City Football Group acquired a 44.3 per cent stake in Girona in an equal partnership with the Girona Football Group owned by Pere Guardiola, the brother of City boss Pep.
CFG has since increased its stake to 47 per cent while Pere Guardiola now owns 16 per cent. Another 35 per cent is owned by Marcelo Claure, the president of Bolivian team Club Bolivar, a club also among the 13 in CFG’s portfolio.
Also, given that INEOS recently acquired a minority share in Manchester United, these regulations are probably going to cause further problems for Manchester United as well. The INEOS group owns OGC Nice, a French team that is in second place in Ligue 1 and has a good chance of making it into the Champions League.
