Milan, no conflict of interest with Toulouse: both in Europe

MILAN – There is no longer any conflict of interest between Milan and Toulouse, linked to the timeshare of the American fund RedBird. The two teams will therefore be able to play respectively the Champions and the Europa League, contiguous competitions (in theory, from the first you can go down to the second after the group stage). This was established by UEFA, which also gave the go-ahead to the English side of Aston Villa and the Portuguese side of Vitoria Guimaraes and the English side of DeZerbi’s Brighton and the Belgians of Union Saint-Gilloise in the Europa League. .

In summary, Toulouse will be able to play in the Europa League, even if Milan is registered for the Champions League, because the two clubs no longer have the same owner. The UEFA ruling establishes that there is no violation of Article 5 on timeshares, after the resignation from the French club of Gerry Cardinale, the founder of RedBird who controls the majority of AC Milan shares in August 2022, and his departure from the board of directors of three other exponents of RedBird – Alec Scheiner, Isaac Halyard and Niraj Shah – also present on the AC Milan board of directors.

This is Nyon’s press release.

The First Chamber of the CFCB (the Club Financial Control Body, the financial control body of the clubs) has accepted the admission of Aston Villa and Vitoria Sport Clube; of Brighton & Hove Albion FC and Royal Union Saint-Gilloise; of AC Milan and Toulouse FC in UEFA club competitions for the 2023/24 season. The CFCB had previously opened proceedings due to a potential conflict with the multi-club ownership rule under Article 5 of UEFA’s club competition rules.
Following the implementation of significant changes by the clubs and their investors, it has accepted the admission of the aforementioned clubs to the UEFA club competitions for the 2023/24 season. The CFCB has deemed that the significant changes implemented have resulted in clubs complying with the multi-club ownership rule, considering that to date no club, directly or indirectly, owns or trades any securities or shares of any other club participating in a UEFA competition for clubs;
No team is a member of another team participating in a 2023/24 UEFA club competition
No one has any power or is simultaneously involved, directly or indirectly, in any capacity in the management, administration and/or sporting results of more than one team participating in a UEFA club competition; No one has control or influence decisive over more than one team participating in a UEFA club competition.

More specifically, the significant changes that have been implemented relate to the ownership, governance and financial structure of the affected clubs. These changes substantially limit investor influence and decision-making power over more than one club, ensuring compliance with the multi-club ownership rule.
Some of the significant actions taken include
– significant reduction of investor participation in one of the clubs, or transfer of effective control and decision-making power of one of the clubs to an independent party;
– significant restrictions on the ability to provide funding to more than one club;
– no representation on the board of directors and no ability to directly appoint new directors to the board of more than one club;
– no ability to attend the general assembly or participate in key decisions such as approving the budgets of more than one club;
– no ability to exercise control over more than one club at board or general meeting level through veto rights or contractual agreements entered into with other shareholders.