One of England’s richest men, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, agreed to buy a 25% stake in Manchester United worth £1.25billion, the club confirmed on Sunday.
The 71-year-old’s Ineos Group will be overseeing the football operations of the club.
While this is great news for fans, who want the Glazers Family to leave the club, they may have to pay a big price as they will not be allowed to compete in the Champions League due to UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules.
Ratcliffe owns French club OGC Nice and things may get complicated in the future for the 20-time Premier League winners in their pursuit of European football.
UEFA’s rule on multi-club ownership states that no individual entity "may have control of influence over more than one club participating in a UEFA competition."
This means at a time, only one of Nice or Man United would be able to participate in the Champions League if Ratcliffe bought the stake and kept Nice’s ownership as well.
From next year’s UCL, the top three clubs from Ligue 1 will be awarded a direct qualification to the European competition while one would have to play play-offs to qualify. On the other hand, five PL clubs will be going straight to the UCL.
Nice are currently ranked two in the Ligue 1, France's top-flight football league, points table, five points away from the leaders Paris Saint-Germain while Man United are currently ranked eighth after 18 matches in the English Premier League.
If, by the end of the season, both clubs end in the direct qualification zone, the club that finishes higher than the other will earn a qualification to the competition while the other will be banned from Europe.
"As the rules stand, it’s a clear situation. Ineos own Nice and are set to have a significant role in running United,” a UEFA source had confirmed to talkSport.
"Unless the regulations are changed, or Ineos sell one of their stakes, they cannot both play in European competitions, unless one is in the Champions League and the other in the Conference League."
