Ratcliffe puts Swiss club into blind trust to comply with UEFA ownership rules

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe's company INEOS has placed its ownership of Swiss soccer club Lausanne-Sport into a blind trust to comply with UEFA rules on multi-club ownership to enter European competitions.

Lausanne said Wednesday the transfer of stock to a British company — which it did not identify — was made to avoid “possible conflicts of interest” if the club qualified for one of UEFA's three competitions next season.

INEOS owns or has minority stakes in three clubs — Man United, Lausanne and Nice — which are in contention to qualify alongside at least one sibling for the Champions League, Europa League or Conference League.

When Man United and Nice both qualified to play in this season’s Europa League, INEOS put its ownership of Nice into a blind trust to ensure no person or entity had “decisive influence” over the two clubs. UEFA also barred those clubs this season from transferring players to each other or cooperating on commercial deals and scouting databases.

UEFA has had integrity rules for 25 years designed to stop clubs in the same ownership facing each other.

Hundreds of teams worldwide are in multi-club ownership (MCO) networks, raising concern including from UEFA about the risk of collusion on the field or in the transfer market.

Lausanne is currently sixth in the 12-team Swiss league, though trailing just eight points off the lead, and has reached the semifinals of the Swiss Cup, which could earn a place in Europa League qualifying rounds.

Manchester United is 14th in the Premier League but could qualify for the Champions League by winning the current Europa League edition. Nice is third in the French league and on track to enter the Champions League.

INEOS bought Lausanne in 2017, Nice two years later and took a 25% stake in Man United last year.

Lausanne said its president and CEO Leen Heemskerk, a long-time INEOS executive, also resigned to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer