The holding company will have to sell 17% of the LaLiga club to comply with the rule, which also considers the sale or transfer of three or more players between “directly or indirectly” related clubs as an example of influence.
The UEFA take advantage of the historic arrival of Girona to the Champions League to establish stricter measures of independence in clubs with a European seal and that belong to the same holding company.
In a letter sent to federations and leagues, the confederation dictates a series of measures that will directly affect the management and governance of the LaLiga club and its owner, the City Football Group (CFG).
The most relevant point is related to the shareholding. Uefa considers it a “decisive influence” that two clubs compete in the Champions League in which the same shareholder has more than 30% of the share capital. Thus, City Football Group could be forced to get rid of 17.85% of the stake it controls in the entity, and which today amounts to 47.85%. Another 35% is in the hands of Marcelo Claure, a Bolivian businessman who is also very close to the holding company – his club, Bolivar, is partner of the CFG–, and another 16% is held by Pere Guardiola.
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@Footy Headlines
On the other hand, UEFA also wants to control independence in sports management. In squad planning and the transfer market, where more and more loans and conditional sales are seen between clubs from the same holding company, the owner of the Champions League has dictated that It will be considered “decisive influence” when three or more players have been sold or loaned between clubs of the same organization, “directly or indirectly, through their related parties, during the season.”
Of course, for this change plan, and with a few months of margin to carry out operations of this magnitude, The regulator offers an alternative: transfer or assign all of your shares in a club to an independent third party, such as a trust, so all of the club’s decision-making will be solely under the control of that third party or fiduciary. Furthermore, the occurrence of any of these cases does not expel any club from Europe, but rather the team with the lowest coefficient of the two indicated would go down from Champions to Europa League.
In addition, UEFA’s financial control chamber will previously supervise the creation of this independent structure “to ensure that it complies with the standard.”
Source: Ambito
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