Aston Villa’s holding company, V Sports, has announced that they have reduced their stake in Portuguese club Vitoria SC in order to comply with UEFA regulations.
It comes amid ongoing talk of UEFA holding key meetings over the multi-club model that is being increasingly used across Europe, with Villa’s owners one of many examples in relation to the two clubs mentioned above.
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As per iNews, under UEFA rules, two teams who share an owner can’t play in the same competition, and so in our case, with Villa and Vitoria both potentially set to compete in the Europa Conference League next season, this has been highlighted as a concern and a potential conflict of interest.
It’s added that ours is not the only example coming under scrutiny with Brighton and Union SG, AC Milan and Toulouse and others coming under the spotlight.
A two-day meeting was said to have been held on Monday and Tuesday of this week, and it appears as though Villa’s owners have made the necessary changes following those discussions.
As per the club’s statement, it has been confirmed that V Sports have reduced their stake in Vitoria to 29 percent, having transferred shares equaling 17 percent back to the club.
Further, it’s added that V Sports no longer have any representation on the board of directors at Vitoria, and this has been done in order to comply with UEFA regulations and ‘ensure the independence’ of the two clubs.
Ultimately, with the risk of being disqualified from European competitions if those regulations were broken, Villa’s owners have made the necessary changes to avoid any sanctions, and it should have no bearing on their plans for us moving forward.
There will undoubtedly be frustration in some quarters that this has only now been highlighted despite this model being used by others for many years, but Villa have acted accordingly to ensure we’re not in breach of any rules and V Sports will move forward with their new shareholdings in place.
it seems its only when Aston Villa seem to be doing well…..the rules get investigated and changed…..funny isn’t it.