Manchester United in fight to avoid demotion from Europa League

Manchester United could drop down from the Europa League next season due to UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules.

The Premier League giants qualified for the competition by winning the FA Cup despite finishing eighth in the table.

It was the club’s first trophy since Sir Jim Ratcliffe joined as minority owner, with the INEOS founder owning a 27.7 per cent stake.

INEOS also holds the majority shareholding at Ligue 1 side Nice, who have also qualified for next season’s Europa League.

UEFA rules regarding multi-club ownership say that clubs with the same owners can both play in Europe, but not the same competition.

INEOS are in direct talks with UEFA and ‘confident’ that the scenario above can be avoided ahead of next season.

A statement said: “We are aware of the position of both clubs and are in direct dialogue with UEFA. We are confident we have a route forward for next season in Europe.”

Ratcliffe and INEOS must convince UEFA that United and Nice can both play in the Europa League by Monday, June 3.

The matter is set to be ruled by an independent panel ahead of the qualifying rounds of the Europa League, which commence in July.

However, if a solution does not arise, then United would have to drop into the Europa Conference League.

This is due to their eighth-place Premier League finish being lower than Nice’s final standing in Ligue 1, which was fifth.

United last played in the Europa League during the 2022/23 season but were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Sevilla.

Should they drop into the Europa Conference League, they would join Chelsea in the competition.

Ineos are considering letting go of their direct involvement at Nice in order to satisfy the UEFA rules.

They are looking to remove any ‘day-to-day control’ of the club and leave it as a ‘stand-alone entity’, The Telegraph have said.

Aston Villa and Brighton were cleared to play in Europe last season after their owners made changes to their respective links with Portuguese side Vitoria Guimaraes and Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise.

United’s rivals Manchester City and Spanish club Girona both operate under the City Football Group umbrella and will also have to address the same issue this summer after both qualified for the Champions League.

UEFA recently confirmed new guidance around their multi-club ownership rules and what would make for a serious issue.

Clubs ‘must prove that, as at June 3 2024, they comply with the rules aimed at ensuring the integrity of the competition, namely the multi-club ownership rule’.

Issues would arise ‘if a party has the ability to appoint or remove the club’s key executives or the first squad’s head coach’ and/or if they have ‘the ability to influence key executive decisions (such as player transfers, budget approval, key commercial contracts), or benefits from specific contractual or statutory privileged rights with respect to the club’s governance, through veto rights or other privileged rights’.

Sunil Gulati, chairman of UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body, has said cases where ‘compliance with the MCO rule may necessitate the sale of shares in a club’, accommodations will be granted given the ‘short timeframe’ ahead of the deadline.

He added: “Such alternative shall consist in the transfer or the assignment of all its shares in a club to an independent third party, such as a blind trust, whereby all the decision-making of the club will solely rest under the control of the third party/trustee who will be bound by the fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of the club exclusively.

“It is understood that, in such cases, the CFCB First Chamber will oversee the set-up of the independent structure to ensure it satisfies the MCO rule.”