How new UEFA ownership rules affect Man Utd takeover

Stuart Telford

• 16 Mar 2023 16:57 GMT
• 3 min read

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has floated the idea of relaxing rules around multi-club ownership, which could have big implications for the sale of Manchester United.

The Glazer family have put United on the market, and Qatari Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, one of the UK's richest men, have made public declarations of their intent to buy.

But with Paris Saint-Germain already backed by Qatar and their Ligue 1 rivals Nice owned by Ratcliffe, there is a potential conflict of interest per existing UEFA regulations.

READ: Sheikh Jassim 'favourite' to buy Man Utd

Two clubs under the same ownership are barred from taking part in the same European competition if one's has "decisive influence" over the other, as things stand.

Ceferin: not only United

But Ceferin has opened the door to multi-club ownership, telling former Man Utd right-back Gary Neville on Wednesday that: "It has to be quick because, you know, everything has to happen quickly in football," and that UEFA was "not thinking about United only."

While Qatar might argue that Man Utd's and PSG's ownership aren't identical, there has been a recent precedent with the Red Bull Group.

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The Austrian energy drinks company owns RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg, and they were drawn in the same Europa League group stage in the 2018/19 season.

But a UEFA panel of financial experts accepted the year before that the Red Bull Group had created enough separation between the clubs for both to enter European competition at the same time.

Marcel Sabitzer, Dayot Upamecano and Naby Keita are just some of the players who have transferred from Salzburg to Leipzig in recent seasons, with Benjamin Sesko set to follow suit next summer.

Whether PSG and Man Utd would share players to the same degree remains to be seen, but Kylian Mbappe and Marcus Rashford have both been linked with moves to the other in recent months.