Due to Tottenham’s own loss of points, Manchester City once again topped the Premier League in the 11th round of the league. Guardiola’s team remains the most popular championship team in the Premier League this season, and they have also played well in the Champions League. It is not a big problem for them to qualify in the group stage. As the treble champions of last season and the defending champions of the Champions League, Manchester City will definitely face enormous difficulties in winning the championship this season. Even Guardiola cannot guarantee that the team can defend their title again, but this is not the biggest problem for Manchester City and Guardiola.
According to reports from English media, due to the outstanding performance of La Liga team Gerona this season, they have also maintained a very outstanding performance. Despite 12 rounds of the league, they still firmly suppressed top tier giants such as Real Madrid and Barcelona, ranking first in the league. If he maintains this performance, Gerona is likely to secure a spot in La Liga’s Champions League this season. Although there is still a lot of pressure for La Liga’s championship, there is a great chance of competing for the Champions League spot, but this will also cause significant problems for Manchester City.
The reason is also very simple. Both Gerona and Manchester City belong to the same group, and UEFA regulations limit the occurrence of this situation by not allowing the same owner to send out multiple teams. Therefore, obtaining a spot in the Champions League for Gerona is not good news for Manchester City. At present, the owner behind Manchester City owns 47% of the shares of Gerona. If we want to ensure that both teams can participate in the Champions League smoothly, we must sell one team or sell a majority of the shares of a team. Manchester City will definitely be left behind, and Gerona must accept the outcome of the sale.
In fact, similar problems have also occurred with Manchester United before. For example, during the sale of Manchester United, including the Qatar consortium and the Ineos Group, they were very interested in Manchester United. However, due to restrictions from UEFA, they were all trying to avoid similar problems. Ratcliffe’s acquisition of a small stake in Manchester United was also due to the same reason, and he also had the team Ligue 1, Nice, in his hands, So I’m also worried about a similar situation happening. However, this will not cause significant problems for large groups, and they will find ways to avoid similar situations.
Perhaps no one had thought before that it would be Gerona, a team that caused trouble for Manchester City. After all, they were even a team in the Spanish secondary league before this, but this season they have become the biggest dark horse in European football. Even the group behind them did not expect such a situation to occur. The question now is, if Gerona really gets a spot in the Champions League next season, how can they complete the sale of their equity in the short term to avoid affecting Manchester City. Otherwise, there is a possibility of not seeing Guardiola and Harand next season, and everyone is avoiding similar situations.