cornerdon26 wrote:
WellDon wrote:
Hopefully someone with a better understanding of these things can shed some light on an article I read today.
It was an article regarding City Group who own 11 football clubs around the world, including the Belgian club Lommel SK who we got Liam Manning from.
My question then……how can they own 11 clubs, when Pete told us Red Bull were blocked from purchasing us…….am I missing something ?
I've got zero knowledge but my guess is if UEFA blocked it it is because of a fear over what a Red Bull team could achieve in England. UEFA wants to keep the big historical names happy, they bring the prestige and viewers. Leipzig have certainly put pressure on Bayern and managed some solid runs in Europe but Salzburg realistically has a limit. Red Bull in England? Now you've got the potential for something big like Man City.
I'm not sure exactly how Leipzig/Salzburg get around their involvement in Europe, but most clubs who own other teams almost want the clubs to remain smaller to use them as a feeder club/scouting network/work permits etc. Red Bull MK would want to be big, UEFA probably don't want that. Now the FA probably doesn't either, unless the appoint a small panel...
I'm not sure that conspiracy adds up.
It was pretty obvious as soon as the purchases of Chelsea (Abramovich era), Man City and Newcastle happened that those clubs would be able to start competing with 'big historical teams'. And there were valid ethical reasons to deny all those purchases. If it was all a conspiracy to 'keep' the historical teams happy, then
those purchases would have been denied long before the big clubs worried about possible Red Bull MK threat.
As regards the ownership of multiple clubs - God knows how it works. I've long since been frustrated why the likes of Watford could do so many 'in deals' with Udinese and Granada. That helped them get promoted from the championship as they had loads of loans from those clubs who were in Serie A and La Liga at that stage. As for City being able to own so many clubs - that reeks of a recipe for in deals, money laundering, bending FFP rules, etc. Why it's allowed I've no idea.
The restrictions on multi ownership certainly seem to have been relaxed over the years. Although when Rangers were in financial trouble, Mike Ashley tried to buy a stake in them but wasn't allowed because he also owned Newcastle at that point as well. Why he couldn't own two when, at the same time, Watford and City owners own more, again, I don't know? Maybe different FA's have different rules? The UEFA thing might just be more about whether they'd be allowed in European competitions at the same time, rather than whether they can own them all in the first place?