UEFA could relax restrictions on clubs with same owners in the Champions League | OneFootball

UEFA has disclosed that they could relax restrictions on clubs with the same owner playing in European competition simultaneously.

President Aleksander Ceferin said they are considering it. Current UEFA rules do not allow two clubs with the same owners in the same competition.

UEFA has forced sister clubs like RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg to show a clear separation of power and authority between both clubs to avoid conflict of interest.

There have been worries about this situation, with Manchester United up for sale. The two bidders for the club, Shiekh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, already have affiliations with other European clubs.

Qatari banker Shiekh Jassim is the brother of Paris Saint-Germain owner Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The two clubs will likely face off at one point in European competition.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the founder/CEO of INEOS, and they own Ligue 1 club OGC Nice. They have shown ambition and want to compete in the Champions League. They could clash with United if that happens.

Speaking to Gary Neville on his show The Overlap (via The Times), Ceferin said: “We are not thinking about Manchester United only.

“We have had five or six owners of clubs who want to buy another club. We have to see what to do.

“The options are that it stays like that or that we allow them to play in the same competition. I’m not sure yet.

“We have to speak about these regulations and see what to do about it. There is more and more interest in this multi-club ownership.

“We shouldn’t just say no for the investments for multi-club ownership, but we have to see what kind of rules we set in that case, because the rules have to be strict.”

The new development will also be good news for Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly. He has spoken of his admiration for the multi-club network model, singling out Leipzig and Salzburg for praise.

Boehly would love to implement this model with Chelsea and any clubs they acquire. He already spoke to Marc Keller about buying Ligue 1 club Strasbourg.

He is also looking at clubs in Belgium and has spoken with super agent Jorge Mendes to help identify potential clubs in Portugal.