MANCHESTER UNITED could be relegated to the Europa Conference League despite their FA Cup final triumph, reports suggest.
The Red Devils’ 2-1 victory over Manchester City on Saturday saw them end a difficult season on a high and qualify for the Europa League next season.
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As a result, Chelsea were eliminated from the Europa League via the Conference League, whilst Newcastle were eliminated from European competition entirely.
However, Man Utd could soon join the Blues in the third tier of European football due to Ineos and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s links with French side Nice.
Ratcliffe, 71, completed a purchase of the Ligue 1 side for £88.77m in 2019.
This season, the club secured a place in the Europa League after finishing 5th in the French top flight.
However, with Ratcliffe and co also bringing a 27.7 per cent stake in Man Utd, this could cause problems for the Old Trafford outfit under Uefa’s multi-club ownership rules.
According to L’EquipeIneos’ participation came with a plan to invest a further £245m in infrastructure work that would increase its ownership to more than 30 per cent.
Exceeding this threshold would put Ineos in breach of ownership rules and force one of the teams to be relegated to the Conference League.
Normally, Nice would get the place over Man Utd thanks to a better league result – with Man Utd finishing 8th in the Premier League.
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But victory in the FA Cup could see Man Utd take precedence over Ineos, should a decision be made in that regard.
Article 5.01b. of the UEFA regulations states that no individual “may be simultaneously involved, directly or indirectly, in any capacity, in the management, administration and/or sporting performance of more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition”.
This would have seen Man Utd kicked out of European football entirely.
Fortunately for them, in March UEFA relaxed its rules on multi-club ownership ahead of the 2024/25 season.
And Article 5.04 now says that a club that is substituted in one competition “may still be admitted to another UEFA club competition (i.e. in descending order: UEFA Europa League or UEFA Conference League) to which the relevant national association has access.” .
At the start of this season, Brighton and Aston Villa were only allowed to play in UEFA competitions when their owners reduced their stakes in clubs on the continent to less than 30 percent.
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