Toulouse players during a match between Toulouse FC and AJ Auxerre, May 27, 2023 at the Stadium in Toulouse. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
The white smoke blows the Pink City. The Toulouse football club (TFC) had been counting the hours for several days, pending a decision from the European Union of Football Associations (UEFA). The body governing continental football ruled on Friday July 7: the Toulouse club is indeed authorized to play in the Europa League next season, a competition in which the Violets qualified thanks to their victory, at the end of April, in French Cup final.
If the people of Toulouse validated their ticket for Europe on the ground, uncertainty reigned because of their capital situation. Owned by the investment fund RedBird Capital Partners, which also owns AC Milan, the club managed by Damien Comolli risked not being authorized to play in European competition due to UEFA rules, which prohibit two clubs with the same owner to compete simultaneously in a European Cup.
“No club participating in a UEFA club competition may directly or indirectly hold or deal in the securities or shares of any other club participating in a UEFA club competition”, stipulates article 5 of the regulations for European competitions. However, AC Milan – where the players of the French team Olivier Giroud, Théo Hernandez and Mike Maignan play – is qualified for the next Champions League. And the two clubs are not the only ones concerned by UEFA’s decision: in a similar situation, the English of Aston Villa and the Portuguese of Vitoria Guimaraes on the one hand, and the English club of Brighton and the Union royal saint-gilloise (Belgium) on the other hand were concerned by the procedure opened by the UEFA financial control chamber.
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Increasingly common in the football landscape, clubs with common owners have found ways to meet the requirements of the European body. Like RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg, the two figureheads of the Red Bull galaxy, who had managed to play in the Europa League during the 2018-2019 season – moreover failing in the same group –, after having ensured that he Red Bull group officially gave up all managerial duties in the Austrian club to retain only a sponsorship contract. A maneuver sufficient to convince UEFA, despite the same logo, common initials and many links between the clubs.
“Significant Changes”
To convince UEFA, the fund holding “TéFéCé” proposed to split the holding company holding the two clubs into two separate entities. On the one hand Footballco, which would retain the supervision of the TFC, and on the other ACM Football, which would take over that of AC Milan. In addition, several members of RedBird resigned from the Toulouse club’s board of directors at the beginning of June.
In its press release on Friday, UEFA said it was convinced by the “significant changes made by the clubs concerned and their investors”which make it possible to limit “considerably the influence and decision-making power of investors”on at least one
clubs they own.
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But if it considers the broken links between the different clubs, the European body specifies that the teams concerned have accepted, in order to be able to compete in the European cups, not to transfer or loan players until September 2024. A way to ensure “independence” of their recruitment cells, which could, in the long term, concern other teams: some – like the Manchester City galaxy, of which Troyes is a part – having the habit of lending their young people to their satellite clubs.
Accustomed to European evenings in rugby, Toulouse will taste the continental football scene again next season. A few months after seducing France with its playful team and clear winner of the Coupe de France (5-1 against Nantes in the final), the TFC and its new coach, Carles Martinez Novell, will therefore play well in the Europa League.