This Friday, Jean-Pierre Rivère assured that OGC Nice would participate in the Europa League next season, even though Ineos also owns Manchester United, also involved in C3. This dual shareholding could violate Article 5 of the UEFA club competition regulations relating to “protecting the integrity of the competition in relation to club timeshare ownership“.
“We will make the Europa League“, however assured Jean-Pierre Rivère, on the sidelines of the press conference presenting the new coach Franck Haise. Last February, the British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, boss of the petrochemical giant Ineos, majority shareholder of OGC Nice, was became co-owner of Manchester United.
Their victory in the FA Cup final allowed the Manchester club to secure their place in the C3, in which Nice will also participate after finishing 5th in Ligue 1.
This requires legal adjustments
“Today, we are playing in the same competition (as Manchester United, editor’s note). We will play in the Europa League. There is no debate on the subject. It requires legal adjustments, positioning. All this is in progress” explained Jean-Pierre Rivère.
However, he admitted waiting for “the UEFA’s final answer next week. But we have no worries“. A similar case arose last year for Toulouse Football Club, which was involved in the Europa League at the same time as AC Milan, both owned by the investment fund RedBird Capital. TFC had to make changes to its organisational chart in order to be able to participate in the European competition.
