Kieran Maguire

Sun 9 July 2023 16:34, UK

Aston Villa owners will be wary of breaking Uefa’s new multi-club rules to avoid having multiple clubs banned from European competition.

That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about Uefa’s new stamp down on multi-club organisations.

Uefa opened up proceedings this month looking into Villa’s shared ownership with Portuguese side Vitoria Sport Clube as both clubs prepare to compete in the Uefa Conference League together next season.

Villa’s owners, Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, agreed to buy a 46 per cent stake in Vitoria back in February for a fee of around £5million.

Uefa’s new rules state that no one person has the power to be ‘simultaneously involved’ in management, administration and/or sporting performance of any club and they must not have any ‘control or decisive influence’ over more than one club.

Villa have since been cleared of the new rules and given the green light to participate in the Conference League next season.

Maguire believes Uefa’s new multi-club restrictions ‘make a lot of sense’, and suspects it will stop owners from trying to find loopholes.

“Uefa’s original rules for multi-club organisations were introduced around 25 years ago and they’ve not really adapted to the times,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.

“Therefore, the changes that have been confirmed in the past few days make a lot of sense.

“They allow minority investments and relationships between clubs but not control and influence.

“Multi-club networks are not going to go anywhere, if anything they are going to be an even more common feature moving forward.

“I think the biggest issue is going to be policing these relationships although I have a suspicion that club owners such as those at Aston Villa will be very sensitive to this.

“Anyone who tries to game the system is in danger of having potentially multiple clubs banned from European competition.“

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