However, UEFA also prohibited the partner clubs — Brighton
and Union Saint-Gilloise; Toulouse and Milan; Villa and Vitória Guimarães —
from exchanging players via sales or loans through the end of the summer
transfer window next year.
UEFA drafted rules on multi-club ownership 25 years ago to
protect the integrity of its competitions when the teams could be drawn to play
each other during the season. UEFA-appointed investigators evaluated three
cases in recent weeks.
UEFA noted the “significant changes by the clubs and their
related investors” to comply with the rules that “substantially restrict the
investors’ influence and decision-making power over more than one club.”
“The clubs will not transfer players to each other, whether
permanently or on loan, directly or indirectly, until September 2024,” UEFA
said in a statement.
That would prevent the kind of loan move that Japan forward
Kaoru Mitoma made between Brighton and Union for the 2021-22 season.
Also, UEFA ruled that “the clubs will not enter into any
kind of cooperation, joint technical or commercial agreements. The clubs will
not use any joint scouting or player database.”
Brighton can now make its European debut in the Europa
League in September after persuading UEFA’s club finance panel that its owner
Tony Bloom does not also have decisive influence at Union. The Belgian club is
in the Europa League qualifying playoffs.
Union president Alex Muzio said in a statement “it became
clear that certain changes needed to be made to the ownership structure” to
comply with UEFA regulations. As a result, Muzio said he increased his
investment to become Union’s majority owner, with Bloom’s ownership reduced to
a minority stake.
French Cup winner Toulouse goes into the Europa League
despite its ties to American investment firm RedBird Capital Partners, which
also owns Champions League team Milan.
Aston Villa’s American owners reduced their stake last week
in Portuguese club Vitória and both teams will now enter qualifying rounds for
the third-tier Europa Conference League.
In multi-club ownership cases, UEFA rules give priority to
the team that placed higher in its domestic league last season. The
lower-ranked team risked being removed.
Brighton was in jeopardy because it placed a club-best sixth
in the Premier League while Union was third in the Belgian league. Aston Villa
was seventh in England, Vitória was fifth in Portugal.
The multi-club rules were most famously tested in 2017 by
Leipzig and Salzburg which UEFA let enter the Champions League together despite
both being part of the Red Bull group. In that case, no transfer limits were
imposed and the clubs have continued to trade often between each other.
The UEFA ruling on Friday ended the hopes of Tottenham,
eighth in the Premier League, being upgraded to European competition.
The threat posed by multi-club ownership to integrity in
soccer and the transfer market was flagged by UEFA researchers this year in
their annual analysis of the industry. They identified more than 180 clubs
worldwide in a multi-club structure and a trend driven by American investors.
The biggest project is Abu Dhabi-controlled City Football
Group which includes Manchester City among five European teams in a 13-club
global project. The new Champions League winner is the only one of those teams
which qualifies for UEFA competitions.
Brighton’s entry into the Europa League could be the most
lucrative among the three clubs who were at risk.
Brighton should earn at least 15 million euros ($16 million)
in UEFA prize money with more on offer from win bonuses and advancing through
the knockout rounds. In the 2021-22 season, Europa League winner Eintracht
Frankfurt got 38 million euros ($41 million) from UEFA.
Playing and winning in European competitions is also seen as
key to developing a club’s ambitions, attracting players and earning UEFA
ranking points that ensure more prize money and better seeding in future
seasons.
Villa, the 1982 European Cup winner, has not qualified for
any UEFA competition for 13 years and not played in any group stage since 2008.
Toulouse last played in the 2009-10 season.
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