The president of OGC Nice has announced that his club will participate in the Europa League, although its owner, Ineos, is in charge of Manchester United, who also qualified for the competition.
OGC Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivère assured on Friday that his club would participate in the Europa League even though its owner Ineos also owns Manchester United, also involved in the same European football competition. This dual ownership could violate Article 5 of UEFA’s club competition regulations relating to “protecting the integrity of the competition in relation to multi-ownership of clubs”.
“We will make the Europa League”however assured Jean-Pierre Rivère, on the sidelines of the press conference to present the new coach Franck Haise. Last February, the British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, boss of the petrochemical giant Ineos, majority shareholder of OGC Nice, became co-owner of Manchester United.
Their victory in the FA Cup final allowed the Manchester club to secure their place in the C3, in which Nice will also participate after finishing 5th in Ligue 1. “Today, we are playing in the same competition (as Manchester United, editor’s note). We will play in the Europa League. There is no debate on the subject. It requires legal adjustments, positioning. All of this is in progress.”explained Jean-Pierre Rivère.
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However, he admitted to waiting “the final response from UEFA next week. But we have no worries”. A similar case arose last year for Toulouse Football Club, which was involved in the Europa League at the same time as AC Milan, both owned by the investment fund RedBird Capital. TFC had to make changes to its organisation chart in order to be able to participate in the European competition.
