How Chelsea are planning to get around UEFA's multi-club ownership rules if Blues & Strasbourg qualify for Champions League

According to BBC Sport, if both Chelsea and Strasbourg qualify for next season's Champions League, their owners, BlueCo, will put the latter into a 'blind trust'. This means, for instance, that board members or staff working across both teams will no longer do that, with the trust allowing for the transfer or assignment in a club to an independent third party.

Chelsea - who have reportedly been in conversation with UEFA since January about setting up a compliant structure on this matter - currently sit fifth in the Premier League. That could secure them Champions League football next season, but the race for those qualification spots is fierce - something that is also the case for sixth-placed Strasbourg in Ligue 1. The French team are just two points off second-placed Marseille but may need to win both their last two games to make it into Europe's top football competition next term. Aside from that, this shows how these sides' American owners and trying to use their nous to work the rules in their favour.

The BBC added that the two established ways around UEFA's multi-club ownership rules are to either reduce a stake in one of the teams, something Brighton owner Tony Bloom did with his Belgian side Union SG, or to put one of them into a blind trust so an individual can't have control over two outfits.

Strasbourg will hope to boost their Champions League qualification chances when they travel to Angers on Saturday, whereas Chelsea are away to high-flying Newcastle United on Sunday.