I remember a few years ago, Tottenham and Real Madrid signed a “partnership agreement“. It basically consisted of Madrid signing Spurs best players (Gareth Bale, Luka Modric) and Tottenham getting Roberto Soldado.

There fans were hyped over the deal as they thought it would give them first option on Madrid’s talented young players. Taking them on loan and helping them develop. They were basically celebrating becoming Real Madrid’s feeder club.

And over 10-years on from that deal, their fans are still begging to become a feeder club to an elite European club.

Last week, a story broke that the chairman of Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) Nasser Al-Khelaifi met with Tottenham’s Daniel Levy.

Off the back of the news, Spurs fans celebrated that they might be finally getting some of that Arab oil money which could bank roll them to success.

Having not won a league title in 62 years, the FA Cup in 32 years, and been trophyless for nearly 15 years, the excitment stank of desperation.

QSI are not looking to buy Tottenham. They already own an elite European club – PSG. they looking to buy or invest in minority stakes of further European clubs.

The Qatari’s are looking to create a similar structure to City Football Group, where the Abu Dhabi United Group own 12 clubs (either outright, majority shares or minority shares).

11 of those clubs are owned for the benefit of 1, Manchester City. All the money, all the income, goes towards financing Man City (with those clubs getting the benefit of loan players and shared coaching and scouting knowledge).

Chelsea’s owners have recently publically talked about growing a “multi-club” model and we recently discussed how the future could look.

If Europe’s elite continues to grow their network of clubs, you will end up with two very clear tiers.

Those at the top who the mutli-club model is there to benefit. And the network of clubs underneath who all act like as feeder clubs to their parent side.

So Spurs fans are basically celebrating the possiiblity of becoming PSG’s feeder team.

And this is where it gets fun.

Article 5 Integrity of the competition / multi-club ownership of UEFA’s Regulations dicusses the ownership of mutiple clubs.

One of the criteria for entry into a UEFA competition is that two clubs may not have shared ownership. Note that it does not just talk about majority ownership. It indicates any ownership.

This would mean if PSG bought a share in Tottenham, qualification for Europe would depend on firstly whoever qualifies for the higher tournament, secondly whoever finished highest in their league, and thirdly whichever side players in the highest ranking league.

This would mean that if both PSG and Tottenham qualified for the Champions League, whoever finished highest in their league would qualify for Europe. Most likely PSG.

Likewise if PSG qualified for the Champions League and Tottenham qualified for the Europa League, Spurs would be excluded from entering UEFA’s second competition.

The only way Tottenham would qualify for either of UEFA’s top two competitions would be if they finished either higher in the Premier League than they did in Ligue 1, or finished equal and England held a higher country coefficients (England top the club rankings, France are currently 5th).

There is good news for Spurs though. A route in Europe would open up if PSG finished in a Champions League position and Spurs qualified for the Europa Conference League. It being impossible for either team to play each other means there would be no conflict of interest.

But what about the Red Bull clubs? Both of them are in the Champions League you ask.

Well this was investigated by UEFA back in 2017, and it was established that whilst Red Bull own Leipzig, they were officially only a title sponsor of Salzburg.

Reb Bull also scaled back their managerial role in Salzburg and some executive board members shared by both clubs stood down. This was enough for Salzburg to prove to the courts that they were suitably independent from the Red Bull corporation, and Leipzig and themselves were sufficiently distinct from one another.

This allowed for both to be admitted to UEFA competitions.

Based on this, Tottenham could still enter the top two European competitions if they could prove that QSI had no influence over how theyw ere run. No board members, no shared scouting or coaching. No reciprocal loan deals. Basically none of the benefits of the multi-club model!

What I imagine QSI will be thinking is that they can utilise the money made by the Premier League TV deals to ensure that PSG remain with UEFA FFP.

Tottenham will be asset stripped, reducing the wage bill as much as logistically possible to remain in the Premier League and earn that TV money. They will then “pay” PSG for services (the aforemention shared coaching and scouting network) and overpay for loan players. This all generates income for PSG.

It is not too dissimilar with what the Pozzo family wanted to do with Watford – the hope was the Premier League money earned by Watford could be filtered through to Udinese to give them an advantage in Serie A. Watford are now in the Championship.

When the special relationship with Real Madrid was established, it was a one-way agreement. And it will be the same if QSI buy a stake in Tottenham.

Spurs will become PSG’s feeder club. Excluded from entering European competition. And their financies stripped to the benefit of the Paris side.

Enjoy guys….

Keenos