The City and Girona Champions League dilemma

Last night I watched Real Madrid play Girona on ITV 4.   Real overwhelmed their opponents, not least because of Jude Bellingham who scored twice.

Girona have flourished since returning to the top flight for last season, catapulting themselves towards the top of the league under manager Michel Sanchez.

Girona are part of City Football Group, the global footballing empire.  City Football Group is the brainchild of Ferran Soriano — the former Barcelona executive who has been Manchester City’s chief executive since 2012. He also now holds the same position across the wider footballing group.

First incorporated in 2013, it comprises full or partial ownership of 13 clubs across five continents. Several of the teams involved have gradually transitioned from their pre-takeover kits towards City’s colours — though they share more than a sky-blue shirt.

Soriano has explained in his book, Goal: The Ball Doesn’t Go In By Chance, that Europe’s elite must act like multinational companies to compete at the highest level. Investing in multiple clubs around the world is the outcome of that philosophy, bringing benefits of shared resources, places to develop talent and keeping some transfer spending within the company, among others.

City first invested in Girona in August 2017, purchasing a 44.3 per cent stake after they won promotion to La Liga. An equal share was also held by a group ultimately chaired by Pere Guardiola — City manager Pep Guardiola’s brother — though in the years since, City’s share has now increased to 47 per cent, with Pere Guardiola selling around two-thirds of his stake to a Bolivian businessman named Marcelo Claure. Claure himself has links with CFG through Club Bolivar, a partner club he owns in his homeland.

The links between City and Girona — from ownership, executive and footballing perspectives — clearly run deep.

The UEFA rules

UEFA’s rules, in theory, are intended to stop any chance of collusion between sister clubs who may meet in European competition.

Delving into UEFA’s rulebook, Article Five is the relevant passage — originally stemming from concerns over the control ENIC (Tottenham’s current owner) had over AEK Athens of Greece, Italy’s Vicenza and Slavia Prague from the Czech Republic, who between them made up almost half of the now-defunct UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final draw in the 1997-98 season.

According to the regulations, the same individual or legal entity is not allowed to have “control or influence” over more than one club playing in the same UEFA-organised competitions. Included in the definition of “control or influence” is the following — “the ability to exercise by any means a decisive influence in the decision-making of the club.”

It is understood that UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB), will be looking into the matter should both teams qualify for the Champions League, having ruled on several comparable relationships in recent years.

If it decides City and Girona do indeed share “control or influence”, and the clubs are not able to find a workaround  then one of them will not be able to play in the Champions League, should they both qualify.

As to which one misses out? The current UEFA rules state the team who finished higher in their domestic league will have priority when it comes to Champions League admittance — with the other dropping down to the Europa League.

So if Girona are able to hang on to second, while City lose out in the three-horse race with Liverpool and Arsenal and end up third, or should Girona win La Liga and City finish second, it’s the Catalans who would qualify. If both teams finish in the same position in their respective domestic league, then the team playing in the one with a higher UEFA association coefficient — currently City, with England ranked third — get the nod.

As of now, over three months before this situation might become a reality, the mood at City and Girona is relaxed.

Senior figures at both are confident the clubs should be able to compete in the Champions League next season if they qualify — though changes may have to be made. While CFG’s stake in Girona is only 47 per cent, the key issue is a matter of individual influence, rather than the ultimate ownership explicitly.

There is also a recognition that the ability to transfer or loan players between the clubs is likely to be affected — regardless of whether any deal meets a fair market value test. Their proposed move for Girona’s Troyes loanee Savio is an interesting example of City perhaps seeking to finalise business early.

Part of CFG’s plan is to foster a web of player development — and to ensure both clubs would be able to play in the Champions League next season, it may need to sacrifice one strand of that by separating player databases. Girona, counter-intuitively, will distance themselves from City with their own success.

More work for the lawyers?

City and long-running legal cases are no strangers to each other, following their lengthy legal battles with both UEFA and the Premier League over alleged breaches of financial rules. The latter is still ongoing. City deny any wrongdoing.

According to legal experts with knowledge of competition law, teams who just miss out on Champions League qualification — for example, the fifth- or sixth-place finishers in the Premier League, depending on UEFA’s coefficients — may have the ability to appeal to UEFA, arguing that Article 5 is not satisfied.

That would be at the discretion of individual clubs — and it is unprecedented to date across limited examples — but with Champions League qualification worth a minimum of some £30million, the prospect of this rumbling into litigation cannot be ruled out.