Man City are the defending European champions, but they might be barred from playing in next year’s Champions League if they fail to win the Premier League.
Manchester City could miss out on next year’s Champions League if Girona wins La Liga.
The biggest League champions – and reigning European champions – have qualified for Europe’s biggest competition for 13 years in a row, reaching the knockout round 11 times in a row. In the present era, a Champions League campaign without Manchester City is unfathomable.
However, due to the club’s multi-model ownership and UEFA regulations, if Girona wins the Spanish title while City fails to win the Premier League, Pep Guardiola’s side may be barred from participation in the league the following year, according to ESPN.
As things stand, City is five points behind Liverpool, while Girona is once again at the top of La Liga.
City and Girona are just two of the 13 teams that comprise the City Football Group, which owns clubs all around the world. CFG now owns a 47 percent stake in Girona.
The links between City and the Spanish club are particularly strong: Pep Guardiola’s brother, Pere Guardiola, is the current chairman of Girona and owns a 16% stake in the team.
Under current rules, if two clubs from the same ownership group qualify for the same UEFA competition, the team that finishes first in their domestic league receives the spot.
If both clubs finish in the same position, i.e. second place, the club with the highest club coefficient ranking will qualify. In this case, it would be Manchester City.
These laws are likely to generate additional problems in Manchester’s red half in the near future, especially with Ineos purchasing a minority ownership in Manchester United. They already own French club OGC Nice, which is presently second in Ligue 1 and on course to qualify for the Champions League.
It should be noted that UEFA has previously discovered a solution to comparable concerns. For example, both RB Leipzig and FC Salzburg are owned by the Red Bull company, but they have been permitted to compete in the Champions League together in recent years because Salzburg took steps to explain a clear difference between themselves and Leizpig by replacing board members.
Girona returned to the top of La Liga on Sunday night, leapfrogging Real Madrid with a 1-0 win over Celta Vigo. Cristian Portu scored the crucial goal.
Manchester City, meanwhile, will try to get their title hopes back on track at home against struggling Burnley. They will then travel to Brentford next week.
