Man City and Man Utd are allowed to play alongside sister clubs in Europe

Manchester City and Manchester United are allowed to play in the Champions League and Europa League together with their sister clubs Girona and Nice, the First Chamber of the UEFA Financial Control Body (CFCB) announced on Friday.

European football’s governing body said the sister clubs’ investors had made changes to avoid any potential conflict with UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership, including transferring their shares in Girona and Nice to an independent trustee, which would be supervised by the CFCB’s First Chamber until July 1, 2025.

City Football Group, which owns City and Girona, and INEOS Sport, which controls the football activities of United and Nice, have demonstrated to the CFCB that none of them was involved in the management of more than one club at the same time or had control or decisive influence over more than one club, UEFA said.

In addition, the clubs would not transfer players between each other until September 2025.

“The significant changes in the ownership, governance and financial support of the clubs concerned significantly limit the influence and decision-making power of investors over more than one club,” UEFA said in a statement.

“The First Chamber of the CFCB will continue to monitor the above situations to ensure that the multi-club ownership rule is also respected during the 2024/25 season.”

City won the Premier League and Girona finished third in LaLiga to qualify for the Champions League, while United won the FA Cup and Nice finished fifth in Ligue 1 to qualify for the Europa League.