Toulouse president Damien Comolli: “We will play in Europe next season.”

Toulouse’s victory in the Coupe de France against Nantes (5-1) on Saturday secured their place in the Europa League next season. However, there were concerns that the club may not be able to participate due to sharing the same majority shareholder as AC Milan. But in a post-match interview, TFC President Damien Comolli promised that his team will indeed play in the competition. The following was transcribed by RMC Sport.

“We have submitted our UEFA club request last night (Friday) to the FFF, as required by the regulations, and they will grant us the UEFA licence. We have provided all the documents and in all the discussions we had with the federation, whether on a capital, financial, infrastructure, coaching diplomas, or training center level, it was very positive. I personally commit to the fact that we will play in Europe next season,” Comolli said.

The UEFA regulations state that two clubs with the same owner cannot participate in the same European competition, and as Toulouse and AC Milan share RedBird as their majority shareholder, there was a risk of Toulouse missing out on the Europa League. However, Comolli is confident that this won’t be the case.

“If I tell you that we’ve already prepared everything for the Europa League, will you think I’m crazy? We’ve looked at how much it will earn us, not much actually, but it’s better than a kick in the backside,” Comolli said with a smile.

He also revealed that the club has already planned for the challenges that come with playing in the competition, including player recruitment and the possibility of injuries due to playing on Thursday and Sunday.

“If we look at the number of games, it comes down to about 42 games, not much more than what we played this year. But we have already planned everything,” he concluded.

GFFN | George Boxall