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La Liga team Girona have qualified for the Champions league for the first time in club's 94-year history. This huge success comes in after a Saturday’s 4-2 win against Barcelona moving the Girona side into the second spot and guaranteeing a top four finish this season.
The Spanish team from North Catalonia took the Spanish top flight well enough last year by maintaining an early title challenge alongside Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Michel's team secured a perfect qualification after the Saturday’s results marking a club’s first at the Estadi Montilivi. Despite the huge success, Girona's ownership structure could become a challenge after the qualification.
Girona being owned by City Football Group, which is also a part of investment portfolio for Manchester city owners, this could see difficult in the chances to compete in the Champions league bearing in mind that Manchester City have also made it to the Champions league as usual.
According to UEFA rules on club ownership, the chances are minimal to compete in the same tournament. However, there are no domestic crossovers among City Football Group clubs.
The UEFA governing body clearly states that the same owner cannot have control over more than one club. It is expected that the UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body will look into the matter to determine whether or not both of these teams can register for the Champions league next season.
However, the minimal chances available can be driving factor for Girona and Manchester city to both participate in the next season’s champions league campaign. This comes after similar incidences in the recent years such as RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig cases. This is in the 2017/2018 UEFA champions league campaign.
Other evolved cases include the Aston Villa and Vitoria Guimaraes, AC Milan and Toulouse and Union Saint-Gilloise and Brighton cases that were also reviewed and they were all allowed to participate actively in the 2022/2023 seasons.
Girona’s incredible finish in the campaign has led many questions regarding the feasibility of the club being able to play in the UEFA competition due to strict rules set against multi-club ownership set out by UEFA’s regulations. However having both teams Girona and Manchester City qualified for the UEFA champions league, the a previous report of Mundo Deportivo suggests that both teams could feature in the European competition.
