Ah well, I suppose we have to put aside our petty club games to watch Engerland combat the mighty San Marino.
Me too, so I’ve since had a look and everything I’ve seen says they do. It’s not unique. Watford’s owners also own Udinese, at one point they owned Grenada as well.
It's not that simple. Being owners of two clubs in the same competition is outlawed but there's also a list of requirements e.g (paraphrase) no other entity or individual may have any influence or control in more than one club in the same competition. Both RB clubs had to make changes in their setup including removing people in order to be able to both compete.
It seems to have come to a head when both qualified back in 2017 and questions were raised and an ‘investigation’ carried out Amazingly they suddenly become merely a sponsor and yet there’s nothing about who they were ‘sold’ to anywhere, but UEFA just said crack on Mr Holding Company lol.
got to admit i couldn't be bothered to check but at best suspected it had just simply been "sold" to a new shell company .
trouble is they are dealing with entities that are used to finding ways to avoid regulation after all just look at tax avoidance .
Interestingly the two clubs (Hoffenheim and Köln) who missed out should Leipzig, as the club with the lowest coefficient, have been barred, were fine with the decision and neither used their appeal. Got to say I'm liking the German approach to football much more. In light of the Newcastle sale, the Germans 50+1 looks more and more appealing as a way to run club governance.
Literally every source I looked at still had RB as the owners, so it’s safe to say that whatever their ‘restructuring’ involved, opening the club up to a sale in the open market didn’t form part of it.
Their name is a bit of a clue as far as I'm concerned. Of course the two clubs have nothing to do with one another- just like the PIF has nothing to do with the Saudi government. Honest, guv.
