☕️🌤️⚽️ Good morning everyone! Well..here we are. The last week of Champions League knockout soccer this season. Don’t cry because it’s almost over, but smile because it happened. The first semifinal concludes in Paris with Dortmund having a 1-0 lead of PSG. The second semifinal concludes in Madrid, where the score is all tied up at 2-2 and there’s no doubt that we are due for an electric matchup between Munich and Real Madrid.

Giveaway: Wake up and smell the coffee. Our giveaway will be a $30 gift card for our favorite coffee brand- Kickoff Coffee. As always, each friend that you refer to subscribe to the newsletter is an entry to our raffle. Best of luck!

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What happens now?

🏆️🥲🫥 The North Remembers, the team from north east of Catalonia took the Spanish top flight by storm, maintaining an early title challenged along side current Real Madrid and neighbours Barcelona. Their impressive form has been one of the main talking points in La Liga in 2023/24.

• Girona came from a 1-0 and 2-1 down to record an incredible 4-2 victory over Barcelona on Saturday, completing a league double over their fellow Catalan side

• Ukrainian striker Artem Dovbyk once again found the back of the next, putting him to clear of Jude Bellingham in the race for leagues’s top scorer, Pichichi Trophy

• Barcelona’s defeat meant Real Madrid were crowned champions

The victory ensures a top-four finish. That’s right the Catalonia club even qualified for UEFA’s Champions League next season. Girona applied for a UEFA license to compete in European club competitions at the end of last season, as they narrowly missed out on a UEFA Europa Conference League qualification spot and were granted permission by the European governing body. However, Girona’s excitement may be very short lived as their ownership structure has placed their Champions’ qualification in jeopardy.

• Girona are part owned by City Football Group (CFG) an investment portfolio for Manchester City’s owners.

• CFG was established under the auspices of the Abu Dahbi United Group (ADUG)

• CFG purchased 44.3% stake- which has since increased to 47% in 2017

• With other key stakeholders led by Pep Guardiola’s brother Pere, came the resulting product Girona Football Group (GFG)

• The arrangement between Girona and Manchester City, relates to a range of “shared assets” including player loans and financial support

📤️🛫🥹 Can We still Play? Girona fans are practicing their best puppy eyes when asking UEFA. Due to GIrona and Manchester City both qualifying for next years Champions League the City Football Group may have to sell their stake in the club as UEFA Article 5 of Champions League regulations states:

• No club participating in a UEFA club competition may, either directly or indirectly hold or deal in the securities or shares of any other club participating in a UEFA club competition, be a member of any other club participating in a UEFA club competition, be involved in any capacity whatsoever in the management, administration and/or sporting performance of any other club participating in a UEFA club competition, or have any power whatsoever in the management, administration and/or sporting performance of any other club participating in a UEFA club competition."

• The article further explains: "No individual or legal entity may have control or influence over more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition, such control or influence being defined in this context as: holding a majority of the shareholders’ voting rights, having the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the administrative, management or supervisory body of the club, being a shareholder and alone controlling a majority of the shareholders’ voting rights pursuant to an agreement entered into with other shareholders of the club, or being able to exercise by any means a decisive influence in the decision-making of the club."

🔍️🕵️‍♂️👀 Same same, but different. The high-profile nature of City and Girona's association means UEFA would be almost certain to investigate the matter now both teams have qualified for the Champions League. It is expected that UEFA's Club Financial Control Body will convene to determine whether or not both these teams can register for next season's Champions League.

• Currently there are rules in place over clubs with the same outright owner, with the most infamous case focusing on RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg. Sparking a UEFA investigation in 2017, as both clubs heavily influenced by their owners Red Bull, and their close sporting and commercial relationship.

• UEFA concluded their satisfaction that no rule was broken, with the club's respective 'operational structures' showing sufficient separation to be distinguished from each other.

Potential conflict of interests in cases involving Aston Villa and Vitoria Guimaraes, Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise, and AC Milan and Toulouse were all waved away by UEFA ahead of the 2022/23 season, with all of those clubs allowed to compete in various UEFA competitions despite sharing owners – but, crucially, not the same competition as their sister club. Despite the optimistic history, City might be forced to reduce or sell their stake in Girona if both teams qualify for UEFA CL.

• Manchester United have found themselves in a similar situation since the arrival of part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who has an interest in Ligue 1 high-flyers OGC Nice. The French club could yet qualify for next season's Champions League

Weekend Recap

US MLS

English Premier League

Bundesliga

Serie A

La Liga

Bayer Leverkusen
Is Leverkusen still undefeated?

⌚⏳Time and time again, they find a way. Leverkusen manages to avoid defeat in the most dramatic fashions. Because of that, we are going to leave this block up for the rest of the season until they finally lose a game, or maybe they’ll manage to pull of a perfect season? We shall see.

Latest Game:

Bayer Leverkusen
Is Leverkusen still undefeated?

⌚⏳Time and time again, they find a way. Leverkusen manages to avoid defeat in the most dramatic fashions. Because of that, we are going to leave this block up for the rest of the season until they finally lose a game, or maybe they’ll manage to pull of a perfect season? We shall see.

Latest Game:

Matches to Catch

UEFA Champions League-Semi final

English Premier League

Ligue 1

Serie A

Quick Bites 🍕

Real Madrid officially crowned champions

Champions League spot slipping away

Argentina Legend Passes Away

An Incredible run earns Ipswich promotion

Banter of the Day

Football, by the fans for the fans

In search of a pub? Ever find yourself in a new city and are desperately searching for a local soccer pub? Who would have thought that the premier league took time out of their day to create a bar finder. There really is nothing better than catching an early premier league game on the weekends with fellow fans of the game, and finding that bar that will actually have the game sound on just got that much easier.

USA Bar Finder. Bar finder, aka Intern Jose’s nickname in college. Easy to use search platform on the premier leagues website. It has most major cities included, and they’re even accepting updates to their list if you email them at [email protected]

Find your local soccer pub here.