No. A person cannot be involved in or have any power to determine or influence the management or administration of more than one club, and anyone with a significant interest in one club cannot hold any voting shares at all in another.
The two lines the rule draws
The rule works on two separate lines. One is about involvement in, or any power to determine or influence, a club's management or administration. The other is about cross-holdings in shares with voting rights.
A significant interest is tied to a 10% threshold. It covers shares, or the ability to exercise the votes on them, carrying in aggregate 10% or more of the total voting rights of any class of a club's shares, whether held directly, indirectly or by contract. Rights held by a connected person, an associate or a nominee are treated as that person's rights as well.
A holding is wider. It means a beneficial interest in, or the ability to exercise the votes on, any shares in the club that carry a vote at a general meeting, with no minimum floor at all. That is the gap between the two lines: 10% on one side, any voting share on the other.
What clubs cannot do with each other
Directly or indirectly, a club cannot hold or apply to hold a holding in another Premier League or EFL club, issue any of its own shares or grant a holding to one, lend money to one or guarantee its debts or obligations, or borrow from one or let one guarantee its own debts. Nor may a club be involved in or have any power to determine or influence another Premier League or EFL club's management or administration, or permit such a club to be involved in or have any power to determine or influence its own.
The restriction goes beyond a single investor. A club cannot issue shares of any description, or grant a holding, to someone who already has a significant interest in another club.
A club also cannot enter into an arrangement that breaches the one-club rule. If it is found to have done so, the league will require the club to take all steps needed either to end the arrangement or change it so the breach no longer exists.
Officials and contract limits
An official of a club cannot also be an official of another Premier League or EFL club. The same person also cannot be involved in, or be able to influence, another club's management or administration, and a club cannot appoint such a person as an official.
There is also a contract rule that reaches past formal ownership. A club cannot sign a contract that gives the other party the ability materially to influence its policies, or the performance of its teams in league matches, in professional development phase matches or in an approved competition.
What must be disclosed and made public
These are the events that have to be notified to the board.
| What triggers the notice | Whose interest it is |
|---|---|
| Someone holds, acquires or stops holding a significant interest in the club | A person, in this club |
| The club itself holds, acquires or stops holding a significant interest in another club | The club, in another club |
| A significant-interest holder has any interest at all in any other club in the world | A person, in a club anywhere |
Each notice must reach the board at once, and the one about a person's interest in the club goes on a league form. It has to identify the person and set out the details of the significant interest, including the number and description of the shares and the nature of the interest, and where appropriate the percentage it represents.
There is a publication duty as well. Each club must put on its website the identity of the ultimate owner of each significant interest in it. The board also keeps a register of the notified particulars, and any club may inspect that register by prior appointment.
One disclosure duty is especially broad. Once a club becomes aware that one of its significant-interest holders has any interest at all in any other club in the world, however that interest is held and with no de minimis exclusion whatsoever, the club must notify the board at once on another league form.
FAQ
What counts as a significant interest in a Premier League club?
It is based on voting rights, not just a label attached to a stake. If the shares, or the votes a person can exercise on them, add up to 10% or more of the total voting rights of any class of the club's shares, that is a significant interest.
Can a Premier League club own shares in another club?
Not in another Premier League or EFL club. The ban covers holding or applying to hold a holding, issuing shares or granting a holding to another club, lending and borrowing arrangements, guarantees, and influence over management or administration.
Do Premier League clubs have to publish who owns them?
They must publish the identity of the ultimate owner of each significant interest on the club website. Separate from that, notified particulars are kept by the board in a register that any club may inspect by prior appointment.
What can the board do if the line is crossed?
If a person acquires a significant interest in a club while holding any holding in any class of shares of another club, the board can suspend the club. The suspension can take effect immediately or be postponed on conditions the board thinks fit, and it can be lifted once the board is satisfied that the triggering circumstances no longer exist.
Unless the suspension is postponed, a suspended club cannot play in a league match, in games programme or professional development league matches, in an approved competition, or in any other match. The board decides how a league match cancelled by the suspension is treated.