Because of Manchester City, Girona still have to worry about participation

On the sporting front, Girona confidently qualified for the European Cup for the first time. Due to the partnership with Manchester City, there is still a risk of problems on UEFA’s green table.

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On Saturday evening, Girona showed everything that distinguishes the Catalan team this season: courageous football, beautiful goals, efficiency and morale. Despite falling behind twice and having fewer chances than the great Barcelona, ​​Girona won 4-2 in the end. What caught attention was Porto’s second goal, which scored the final score in the 74th minute.

After the final whistle, coach Michel’s team and most of the 14,000 fans in the stadium were happy to have qualified for the Champions League for the first time. Girona has not participated in the European Cup before. Although the surprise team will finish the season in at least fourth place in the top flight, their dream of the top flight may be dashed.

Because Girona belongs to the City Football Group. This club is largely owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is also president of Manchester City. However, according to UEFA regulations, two clubs with the same owner are not allowed to participate in the same competition. Girona are therefore unlikely to compete in the Champions League or Europa League, as there is a risk of Manchester City being ‘relegated’ to the second highest European competition after the first division group stage.

The rule states that the club with the best ranking in the league has priority. Since Manchester City would at least finish second and play in the league with a better coefficient than UEFA, Girona would lose out in this case.

However, the Spaniards can claim that they are not under the control of the City Football Group. A slight majority of the shares belong to Pere Guardiola, brother of coach Pep, and the Girona Football Group.

However, UEFA is likely to launch an investigation in the next few weeks, among other things English newspaper “I”. mentioned. It is planned to establish a fixed list of clubs under the so-called “multi-club ownership”, which is becoming increasingly popular, but has not yet been found. That’s why UEFA still makes the decision on a case-by-case basis. If the association comes to the conclusion that there is a conflict of interest, the city owners may be forced to sell their shares in Girona.

However, in the past, no club has been refused participation in a European competition for this reason. Even with Red Bull FC Salzburg and RB Leipzig, drawn into the same Europa League group in 2018/19, UEFA felt their “operational structures” were sufficiently separate from each other.

But it is not certain that UEFA will also decide this way in the case of Manchester City and Girona. If the partnership with the Sky Blues causes the collapse of the already realized Champions League dream, the anger among Catalan fans will be enormous. The team, which has the second best attack in La Liga thanks to the league’s top scorer Artem Dubek, certainly deserves to participate in the first division.