The British press is painting the prospect of MU not being able to participate in the Champions League next season if Sir Jim Ratcliffe completes the purchase of shares in the team. What is the truth of this story and how can MU “circumvent the law”?
To get to the bottom of the story, we need to start with Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s £1.3 billion offer for a 25% stake in MU. Different from the way it is called, as well as the understanding of many people, MU does not “change owners”. The Glazers, the owner and major shareholder of Man Utd, also do not “sell” MU.
On the contrary, they just look for a new investor, that is, an organization/individual to buy back a certain portion of shares in MU in exchange for the right to run the team. That is also the reason why Sheikh Jasim abandoned the deal to buy MU shares. The Qatari prince wants to buy back 100% of MU’s shares for over 5 billion pounds (plus a direct investment of another 1.7 billion pounds if “winning the bid”). However, the Glazers refused the proposal.
According to The Athletic, currently, the Glazers, or precisely the six siblings in this family, hold 69% of the shares in Man Utd. The remaining 31% of shares belong to other shareholders. From holding 100% of the shares in 2005 (after buying the team), the number of shares that the Glazers owned gradually decreased when the team was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) 10 years ago. .
Although they only hold less than 70% of the shares, data from Statista and the MU homepage calculate that the Glazers hold 99.5% of the voting rights at the team. That means that this American billionaire family still holds leadership of almost all operations at Man Utd. That is also what MU fans are not satisfied with and that is also what new shareholder, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, wants to change, if he owns 25% of the shares in this team.
As reported by the British press, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, through his INEOS group, wants to hold 25% of the shares in MU along with the right to run the entire football segment here. But at the same time, he also owns Nice, the team that is participating in the Champions League this season and this is also when the problem appears.
According to regulations from UEFA, if two (or more than two) teams are controlled directly or indirectly by the same regime (organization/individual), or are led by the same coach, they will not be able to participate. the same tournament organized by UEFA. Qualification for the Champions League, or any other tournament, will go to the team ranked higher in the national championship.
This regulation has been applied since the 2000/2001 season. Therefore, in the event that Sir Jim Ratcliffe officially takes charge of MU, the home team of Old Trafford and Nice will not be able to participate in the same UEFA club tournament.
In fact, two teams with the same owner winning the right to participate in a UEFA tournament is not a new thing. In the 2019/2020 season, Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig are both present in the UEFA Champions League group stage. In fact, UEFA has allowed two teams to appear on the same playground since 2017 and both reached the quarterfinals of the Europa League in the 2017/2018 season.