Due to Griona and Manchester City both qualifying for next years Champions League the City Football Group may have to sell their stake in the club as UEFA states, Sad News as Manchester City will not Participate in the upcoming Champions League game next season 😱😭
Girona will have to wait for UEFA authorization to compete in next season’s Champions League since partner Manchester City has already secured a spot in the 2024-25 edition, according to ESPN.
Girona has qualified for the Champions League for the first time in the club’s 94-year existence, with a 4-2 win against Barcelona on Saturday putting the side in second place and ensuring a top-four finish this season.
However, because Girona is one of 13 teams in the City Football Group (CFG), their qualifying with Premier League side City has highlighted the possibility of a clash with the multi-club ownership requirement in Article 5 of the UEFA club competitions regulations.
CFG owns 47% of Girona, while Marcelo Claure, the Bolivian-American billionaire and head of Club Bolivar, another CFG team, owns the remaining 35%. Girona’s chairman is Pere Guardiola, brother of City manager Pep.
According to UEFA competition regulations, if two teams from the same ownership group qualify for the same UEFA competition, the club that finishes first in its domestic championship receives the spot. If the two teams finish in the same place, the team with the greater club coefficient (City in this example) will qualify.
With 2023 Champions League winners City needing only two points to secure the Premier League runners-up spot (City will win the title for the fourth consecutive season if they win all three of their remaining fixtures), the English team will take the CFG spot in the Champions League ahead of Girona due to the factors outlined above.
While sources say Girona will not be demoted to the Europa League to avoid a clash with City, the Spanish club will have to outline its position and organizational independence from Manchester City at a UEFA Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) meeting this summer before being cleared to play in the Champions League.
RB Leipzig and FC Salzburg, both owned by the Red Bull Group, have been permitted to compete in the Champions League in previous seasons, while UEFA welcomed numerous teams into its tournaments in July despite worries about potential shared ownership difficulties.
A CFCB hearing permitted Aston Villa and Vitoria, Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise, as well as AC Milan and Toulouse, to compete in UEFA tournaments.
If Manchester United and Nice, both fully or partially controlled by Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS Group, qualify for European play, they will each face a CFCB hearing.
Nice is sixth in Ligue 1 and has a Europa League berth, whilst United is outside the European slots in the Premier League but may still qualify for Europe through the league or by defeating Manchester City in the FA Cup Final on May 25th.
