Girona will play Champions League football next season for the first time in the club’s history after beating Barcelona 4-2 on Saturday.
The win over Catalan rivals Barcelona saw them move 13 points clear of fifth-placed Athletic Bilbao to guarantee one of the four qualification spots available for next season’s competition with four games to spare.
It caps a remarkable season for the club under the leadership of head coach Michel. The Catalan side led the league until December and have never dropped out of the top three.
They played in Spain’s fourth tier as recently as 2006-07, in a division that only featured fellow teams from the Catalonia region.
They were promoted to the third tier for 2007-08 and the following season made their return to the Segunda Division, ending a near-50-year absence from professional football.
Girona’s participation in next season’s Champions League could require ratification from UEFA as the club’s majority owners are the City Football Group — who own Manchester City.
City first invested in Girona in August 2017, purchasing a 44.3 per cent stake after they won promotion to La Liga but that stake was increased to 47 per cent in 2020.
UEFA has rules that closely govern teams that are part of such multi-club ownership models. As well as monitoring player transfers between sister clubs, regulations also limit their ability to meet each other in any of its three continental competitions.
Senior figures at both clubs are confident they should both be able to compete — as was the case in 2018 when RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg played in the same season.
Girona are next in action against Alaves on Friday.
(Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images) (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)
