Despite this, there have recently been cases where clubs of different nations, belonging to the same owner, have qualified for European competitions organised by UEFA, for example Aston Villa and Vitória Sport Clube, Brighton & Hove Albion and Royal Union Saint-Gilloise, AC Milan and Toulouse, or more recently, Manchester City and CF Girona.
Clearly the multiple ownership or influence on several clubs in the same competition can affect the competition itself, for example, if both clubs play in the same group or the same league and one of them needs to win in order to advance to the next round.
In this way, UEFA establishes formal restrictions, which undoubtedly serve to avoid extreme cases. Do these rules serve or are they sufficient, however, to avoid all cases of participation of clubs with the same owner with the potential to affect the ordinary development of a competition? Probably not. Taking Manchester City and CF Girona or RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg as examples, no one would doubt that they belong to the same group. Accordingly, it cannot be ruled out that situations might occur during a competition where a negative result of one of the teams may benefit the other, despite not infringing the restrictions imposed by UEFA. Even with no entity holding more than 50% of the capital of the involved clubs, there is no doubt that the persons behind the group are interested in both teams being successful in the competition.
Far from tightening the rules for participation in such cases, however, UEFA decided to relax the criteria before the 2023/24 season. As a result, three ‘pairs’ of clubs, Aston Villa and Vitória Sport Clube, Brighton & Hove Albion and Royal Union Saint-Gilloise, AC Milan and Toulouse, which were suspected of violating the multi-club ownership rules, were allowed to participate in European competitions. Logically, Manchester City and CF Girona are also allowed to participate in the Champions League 2024/25.