o Club Ownership

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Nov 20 '98

: Roma's Sensi ready to pick up Nice

Nov 19 '98

:
  • Man. United denies link to Australian club
  • Manchester United wants to invest heavily in Australian team

    Oct 29 '98: Bid for Man Utd. goes to monopolies commissi

    Oct 9 '98: European boardrooms filled with new faces

    Sept 15 '98: ENIC buys majority stake in FC Basel

    ENIC is to buy a majority stake in top Swiss side FC Basel by investing five million Swiss francs ($3.5 million) over three years.

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    Sept 14 '98: Sugar turns down ENIC offer for Tottenham shares

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    July 17 '98: AEK and Slavia cleared to play in UEFA Cup

    AEK Athens and Slavia Prague were cleared on Friday to play in the new season's UEFA Cup after the Swiss based TAS, (the Court of Sports Arbitration, a sports tribunal set up by the International Olympic Committee) overturned UEFA's ban on clubs under common ownership playing in the same European competition. This ruling however only pertains to this year's competitions with UEFA having to meet with ENIC and other corporate multi-owners to resolve the long term issues more conclusively.

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    July 1 '98: AEK to lose place in UEFA Cup?

    The thorny issue of cross-ownership of clubs by companies or individuals has finally been addressed by UEFA. The principle of their recent statements on the issue is to ban clubs with financial links to possible European opponents from entering the same competition - "only one team would be permitted to enter where two or more clubs are deemed to be under common control".

    This year, the new guidelines could affect clubs partly or fully owned by the investment trust, ENIC. The trust company has a financial interest in AEK Athens, Slavia Praha, Vicenza and Glasgow Rangers. Since Vicenza did not qualify for Euro competition this year and Rangers are only 25%-owned by ENIC (i.e. not a controlling interest), the new UEFA ruling will only immediately concern AEK and Slavia, both of whom are currently in the draw for the Qualifying Round of the UEFA Cup.

    If the ownership situation at the clubs remains as it is, Slavia, having the higher UEFA ranking of the two, will take the 'ENIC berth' in the UEFA cup while AEK's place would probably go to another Greek team, Ionikos Nikaia. It is believed that AEK and ENIC have until July 20 to change the control situation before UEFA actually exclude them from the competition.

    Other recent corporate purchases of football clubs include IMG's acquisitiion of Racing Strasbourg (France) and Canal Plus' ownership of Paris St.Germain (France) and Servette (Switzerland). Since PSG and Servette participate in different European competitions next year (EC2 and EC3 respectively), no action will be taken against them by UEFA.

    Related ENIC Archival Information

    UEFA

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