Milan owners RedBird Capital could be faced with a complicated situation if the Rossoneri and Ligue 1 outfit Toulouse qualify for European football next season, as the US-based investment firm own both sides.
As stated in UEFA regulations, two teams under the same ownership cannot compete in the same European competition at the same time due to a potential conflict of interest.
However, two teams with the same sets of owners are not even supposed to be allowed to participate in the Champions League at the Europa League at the same time, given that one could be eliminated from the group stages of the former and end up in the knock-out rounds of the latter.
The rule written under Article 5 of UEFA’s regulations states: “No individual may have control or exercise influence over more than one club participating in UEFA club competitions.“
This could be a major cause of concern for RedBird, given that the Rossoneri are currently battling for a place in the Serie A top four and Toulouse are in the French cup final and will receive a place in the Europa League qualifying rounds if they defeat holders Nantes on Saturday night.
However, there is still hope that RedBird can circumvent the UEFA ruling on the basis that RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg have both competed in the same competition on numerous occasions and even played against each other in the Europa League group stage in 2018.
Salzburg reportedly decided to remove members of staff who had alleged links to owners Red Bull and their cooperation deal with Leipzig was scaled back, which led UEFA to accept that there was “insufficient evidence” that the clubs had a shared ownership model.