Man Utd face Champions League BAN if takeover completed

Jacque Talbot

• 29 Mar 2023 15:00 BST
• 3 min read

Manchester United face the prospect of missing out on the Champions League if Sir Jim Ratcliffe takes over the side and they finish in the top-four.

There have been rumblings that bidder Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Thani, heading the Qatari bid, might need to prove he has no connection to Paris Saint-Germain, but there could be issues around Ratcliffe as well.

Britain’s richest man owns Ligue 1 side Nice and, under UEFA rules, it would mean that both will not be able to play in the competition should both gain entry.

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It would be dependent on which club reaches the highest position - for instance, if Nice came third in their league and Man Utd fourth in theirs, it would be the French side who would make it through to the Champions League.

One scenario could be Ratcliffe selling a stake in Nice and focusing his attention on Man Utd, who would then be able to play in the Champions League without issue.

Ratcliffe is a boyhood United fan with a fortune of £6.1 billion.

He lodged a bid with the New York bank Raine Group to buy the Glazers' 69% stake in the Premier League giants.

Earlier this month, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said that the body is prepared to review regulations around multi-club ownership.

The regulations in full

The issue is in Article 5 of UEFA's club competition regulations, which relates to the integrity of the competition and multi-club ownership.

The clause states that, "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]."