Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise, Milan and Toulouse: can they play in Europe in the same season?

[amenina]

With both Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise doing quite well in the league/cup/Europe, what would happen if both clubs qualify for Europe next season, especially if they qualify for the same competition, or if one club starts from a higher competition and drop down to the same competition as the other club?

Has the English or Belgian media talked about this? I suppose the owner would have to do something, similar to the Leipzig/Salzburg situation a few years ago?

[Gorandinho]

According to Union chairman there is no problem. They could both play in Europe according him.

https://sporza.be/nl/2023/03/16/union-v ... 000984549/

[Oldelpaso]

With both Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise doing quite well in the league/cup/Europe, what would happen if both clubs qualify for Europe next season, especially if they qualify for the same competition, or if one club starts from a higher competition and drop down to the same competition as the other club?

Has the English or Belgian media talked about this? I suppose the owner would have to do something, similar to the Leipzig/Salzburg situation a few years ago?

There's been brief mentions in articles about multiple ownership in general, but I haven't seen anything in depth. Similar for Brentford/Midtjylland. The general feeling is that if the Red Bull clubs can get away with it others will too. More widely discussed in England has been the potential for Manchester United to be affected if INEOS or Qatar take over the club. Gary Neville just had a long interview with Ceferin that touched upon it. (here) Ceferin was ambiguous and even hinted at watering down the rules.

As The Athletic wrote: "Ceferin proposed that the present UEFA legislation would prevent a Qatari-owned United playing PSG or an INEOS-owned United facing Nice in the Champions League or Europa League. “Those are the current rules,” he said, “which we have to rethink. The options are (either) that it stays like this or we allow them to compete in the same competition”.

[krdel]

If the rule was ignored for Red Bull, than probably anyone can get away with it. Also Čeferin never really followed the rules, so...

[rpo.castro]

With both Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise doing quite well in the league/cup/Europe, what would happen if both clubs qualify for Europe next season, especially if they qualify for the same competition, or if one club starts from a higher competition and drop down to the same competition as the other club?

Has the English or Belgian media talked about this? I suppose the owner would have to do something, similar to the Leipzig/Salzburg situation a few years ago?

There's been brief mentions in articles about multiple ownership in general, but I haven't seen anything in depth. Similar for Brentford/Midtjylland. The general feeling is that if the Red Bull clubs can get away with it others will too. More widely discussed in England has been the potential for Manchester United to be affected if INEOS or Qatar take over the club. Gary Neville just had a long interview with Ceferin that touched upon it. (here) Ceferin was ambiguous and even hinted at watering down the rules.

As The Athletic wrote: "Ceferin proposed that the present UEFA legislation would prevent a Qatari-owned United playing PSG or an INEOS-owned United facing Nice in the Champions League or Europa League. “Those are the current rules,” he said, “which we have to rethink. The options are (either) that it stays like this or we allow them to compete in the same competition”.

The Salzburg situation is really shady. Red Bull took over the club, they commanded it, injected money. In their website all the history prior to takeover was erased.
Then when Leipzig qualified for UEFA, Red Bull never owned Salzburg. It was just a sponsor. The website was changed, and the history pior Red Bull was back. A miracle. The thing was you couldn't find a statement saying that Red Bull had bought Salzburg. It was so shady that there was no really hard evidence that could go through courts and so Red Bull got away with it.

Alex Murzio says something like "there are a lot of clubs that share investors" true, and that's not forbidden, at least not now (and I think it can't be because anyone can buy shares). But having the control of more than 1 club is. So if him, or him and his partner control both clubs, one will be rulled out. Maybe one partner takes one clubs and the other retains the 2nd.
Lille and Milan were also investigated due to being owned by Elliot fund, meanwhile Elliot sold Milan.

[Jackson Harrison]

With both Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise doing quite well in the league/cup/Europe, what would happen if both clubs qualify for Europe next season, especially if they qualify for the same competition, or if one club starts from a higher competition and drop down to the same competition as the other club?

Has the English or Belgian media talked about this? I suppose the owner would have to do something, similar to the Leipzig/Salzburg situation a few years ago?

Why would this be an issue? Am I missing something?

[amenina]

With both Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise doing quite well in the league/cup/Europe, what would happen if both clubs qualify for Europe next season, especially if they qualify for the same competition, or if one club starts from a higher competition and drop down to the same competition as the other club?

Has the English or Belgian media talked about this? I suppose the owner would have to do something, similar to the Leipzig/Salzburg situation a few years ago?

Why would this be an issue? Am I missing something?

The two clubs have the same owner, Tony Bloom.

[Jackson Harrison]

With both Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise doing quite well in the league/cup/Europe, what would happen if both clubs qualify for Europe next season, especially if they qualify for the same competition, or if one club starts from a higher competition and drop down to the same competition as the other club?

Has the English or Belgian media talked about this? I suppose the owner would have to do something, similar to the Leipzig/Salzburg situation a few years ago?

Why would this be an issue? Am I missing something?

The two clubs have the same owner, Tony Bloom.

Still don't get what difference it makes! Does an owner conflict of interest effect it?

[amenina]

Why would this be an issue? Am I missing something?

The two clubs have the same owner, Tony Bloom.

Still don't get what difference it makes! Does an owner conflict of interest effect it?

According to the UEFA regulations, two clubs “controlled” by the same owner cannot compete in Europe at the same time. But it seems this definition of “controlled” is up to interpretation. Hence why the people at Union Saint-Gilloise says they expect no problem that the two clubs can play in Europe in the same season.

[Jackson Harrison]

The two clubs have the same owner, Tony Bloom.

Still don't get what difference it makes! Does an owner conflict of interest effect it?

According to the UEFA regulations, two clubs “controlled” by the same owner cannot compete in Europe at the same time. But it seems this definition of “controlled” is up to interpretation. Hence why the people at Union Saint-Gilloise says they expect no problem that the two clubs can play in Europe in the same season.

So if they are controlled by the same person which one would not participate? Unfair IMO!

[amenina]

Still don't get what difference it makes! Does an owner conflict of interest effect it?

According to the UEFA regulations, two clubs “controlled” by the same owner cannot compete in Europe at the same time. But it seems this definition of “controlled” is up to interpretation. Hence why the people at Union Saint-Gilloise says they expect no problem that the two clubs can play in Europe in the same season.

So if they are controlled by the same person which one would not participate? Unfair IMO!

https://documents.uefa.com/r/Regulation ... hip-Online

Article 5 Integrity of the competition / multi-club ownership

5.01
To ensure the integrity of the UEFA club competitions (i.e. UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League), the following criteria apply:

No club participating in a UEFA club competition may, either directly or indirectly:
hold or deal in the securities or shares of any other club participating in a UEFA club competition;
be a member of any other club participating in a UEFA club competition;
be involved in any capacity whatsoever in the management, administration and/or sporting performance of any other club participating in a UEFA club competition; or
have any power whatsoever in the management, administration and/or sporting performance of any other club participating in a UEFA club competition.
No one may simultaneously be involved, either directly or indirectly, in any capacity whatsoever in the management, administration and/or sporting performance of more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition.
No individual or legal entity may have control or influence over more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition, such control or influence being defined in this context as:
holding a majority of the shareholders’ voting rights;
having the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the administrative, management or supervisory body of the club;
being a shareholder and alone controlling a majority of the shareholders’ voting rights pursuant to an agreement entered into with other shareholders of the club; or
being able to exercise by any means a decisive influence in the decision-making of the club.

5.02
If two or more clubs fail to meet the criteria aimed at ensuring the integrity of the competition, only one of them may be admitted to a UEFA club competition, in accordance with the following criteria (applicable in descending order):

the club which qualifies on sporting merit for the most prestigious UEFA club competition (i.e., in descending order: UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League or UEFA Europa Conference League);
the club which was ranked highest in the domestic championship giving access to the relevant UEFA club competition;
the club whose association is ranked highest in the access list (see Annex A).

5.03
Clubs that are not admitted are replaced in accordance with Paragraph 4.09.

5.04
This article is not applicable if any of the cases listed under Paragraph 5.01 happens between a club directly qualified to the UEFA Champions League group stage and one qualified for any stage of the UEFA Europa Conference League.

[amenina]

Same issue will happen with Toulouse FC, who have qualified for the Europa League as French cup winners, and AC Milan, who are likely to qualify for Europe. Both clubs are majority owned by RedBird Capital Partners.

[matt]

Cases like Brighton-USG and Milan-Toulouse will happen more often in the future, in my opinion UEFA won't exclude teams just for this, especially after the RB Lipsia - RB Salzburg precedent.

[amenina]

Cases like Brighton-USG and Milan-Toulouse will happen more often in the future, in my opinion UEFA won't exclude teams just for this, especially after the RB Lipsia - RB Salzburg precedent.

Ceferin already said in an interview that UEFA is looking at relaxing the rules in the future.

[krdel]

Of course they will. They are all a bunch of hypocrites, caring only for money and not for sporting principles.