UEFA give Man United assurances over participation in Europe next season after productive talks | OneFootball

Manchester United have reportedly been given assurances by UEFA that they will participate in Europe next season even if OGC Nice qualify, despite concerns brought about by the football governing body’s restrictions on multi-club ownership.

Last month, United confirmed via a public statement that Sir Jim Ratcliffe completed his partial 27.7% investment into the club.

Since then, Ratcliffe and his INEOS organisation have been conducting a thorough audit of United as they aim to identify possible areas of improvement.

Amidst all this, there has always been a giant elephant in the room that needed to be addressed – the conflict brought about by Ratcliffe’s ownership of OGC-Nice.

The INEOS billionaire is the majority shareholder at Nice, who are also chasing European football ahead of next season.

At the moment, the French outfit lie in fifth position in the Ligue 1 standings, level on points with fourth-placed Lille.

Qualification for the Europa League seems to be a real possibility for Francesco Farioli’s side. United who are currently in sixth place in the Premier League, also seem on track to attain Europa League football.

Under UEFA rules and guidelines, the same owner or entity are not permitted “decisive influence” in decision-making across two or more clubs.

Under the existing regulations, if United and Nice both finished in the Europa League places in the Premier League and Ligue 1 respectively, the outfit that came higher between the two would be granted admission into the European competition, while the other would be barred from participating.

Ratcliffe previously addressed this issue and indicated that INEOS held talks with UEFA. The Oldham-born billionaire informed fans that there would be no problem and United would certainly not be prevented from playing in Europe.

However, a recent report from The Peoples Person relayed that UEFA have moved to enforce their rules on multi-club ownership and there is a genuine chance the Red Devils could be barred from taking part in European tournaments.

UEFA’s newly published and updated laws on multi-club ownership state that while clubs under the same ownership can participate in different European competitions, they are prohibited from competing in the same tournament.

The Daily Mail have given an update on the matter and have reiterated that United have guarantees from UEFA that they’ll not be kicked out of Europe even if Nice qualify.

“Manchester United have received assurances from UEFA that they will be allowed to take part in the Europa League next season if Nice also qualify despite the European governing body’s restrictions on multi-club ownership.”

“United have been talking to UEFA for some time about managing such a scenario however, with Mail Sport revealing last month that UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis was a guest at Old Trafford for their Premier League game against West Ham on February 4.”

The newspaper adds, “It is understood that those negotiations have been productive, with UEFA indicating they would not exclude United from competing in the same competition as Nice as long as certain conditions are met.”

Matt Hughes explains that if both Nice and United qualify, the 20-time English champions would have until June 3 to demonstrate that they have no shared management or administrative functions with Nice.

It’s believed that this would be relatively easy to prove as Ratcliffe is still very early into his new era at Old Trafford.

Want to be the first to hear breaking Man United news? For carefully selected, crucial updates, join our WhatsApp channel: https://bit.ly/United-Breaking-News.