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Cardiff supporters have told the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) they do not favour their side being bought by owners of rivals Ospreys.

Cardiff were taken over by the WRU after temporarily going into administration in April 2025.

With the governing body expecting to sell the organisation to new investors in the next few weeks, final bids are required by Monday.

Ospreys’ owners, Y11 Sport & Media, have been linked with taking over Cardiff to eventually form one club – an outcome which would help the WRU achieve its goal of culling a Welsh professional men’s side.

The WRU and Y11 have both declined to comment on the possibility, fuelling fears of Ospreys’ supporters about their side’s future, while Cardiff fans have been vocal on social media against any such proposed takeover deal.

Independent Cardiff supporters group, CF10 Rugby Trust, have outlined fears about their club being associated with Ospreys disappearing from Welsh rugby’s professional scene.

“We have met with the WRU and we told them we think whoever owns Cardiff, it should be a positive for Cardiff rugby and not a negative for Welsh rugby as a whole,” CF10 chair Lynn Glaister told BBC Radio Wales.

It is an uncertain time in the domestic game in Wales, with the WRU proposing last October to cut one of its four men’s professional sides.

Welsh rugby’s governing body has said it plans to grant three licences for men’s professional clubs – one in Cardiff, one in the east and one in the west.

That could result in a survival fight between Swansea-based Ospreys and Scarlets in Llanelli.

An Ospreys takeover of Cardiff would deliver the desired three professional men’s sides for the WRU without the need to put the process out to tender.

Glaister said Cardiff supporters have not been provided with much information from the WRU.

“They have all had to sign a non-disclosure agreement,” he said.

There is another consortium interested, former Cardiff director Martyn Ryan in a group that includes three television and film producers based in the United States of America.

“We know one of the bidders because before they signed the non-disclosure agreement they reached out to us and talked to us about their plans if they were successful,” said Glaister.

“We met the consortium being led by Martyn Ryan before the official process started and it was an exciting prospect.”

Glaister said the other potential investor – believed to be Y11 – has not officially been revealed.

“The other bidder is a secret,” he said.

“We would love to be able to meet with the other bidders and for them to tell us what their plans are but they are not meeting with us.

“The rumours are that it is an owner of another club but nobody has officially told us that it is.

Most Strasbourg fans thought they had it good from the deal which tied them together with Chelsea.

After all, the BlueCo investment has given the French side a team competitive in Ligue 1 and finished top of the Uefa Conference League table last month.

There has been a £157m revamp of their Stade de la Meinau home, improving facilities and increasing capacity.

Then there is their activity in the transfer market.

Before Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital-owned BlueCo took control in 2023 the club’s total transfer fees paid out per season were £6.1m, £3.9m and £9.5m.

In the following three seasons Strasbourg have spent £52.6m, £53.6m and £96.5m. They were the biggest-spending club in France last summer, outgunning even Paris St-Germain (£89.2m).

Success on the pitch was underpinned by the attacking and exciting football under Liam Rosenior. Until now.

Last week the Englishman left to take charge of Chelsea. Those who were happy to accept success over a loss of autonomy in a multi-club ownership (MCO) structure now know the trade-off.

There is evidence that opinion appears to be changing as fans find out what it means to be the perceived subservient partner.

Strasbourg-based L’Equipe journalist Cyril Olives-Berthet says BlueCo have “shot themselves in the foot”.

“The general opinion is utter shock,” he told BBC Sport. “Even people who thought there was some interesting stuff with BlueCo are shocked.

“BlueCo had a relatively good image around France after last season. That is Rosenior, the players and the style of play.

“The backlash is harsh, in the media and with football fans.”

Some Strasbourg supporters have never accepted BlueCo. The club’s ultras stay silent for the first 15 minutes of every match in protest.

For them, Rosenior’s move to Stamford Bridge reinforces their stance.

“The fact Rosenior is jumping on the Chelsea bandwagon is a symbol of everything that is wrong with modern football, and especially with multi-club ownership,” Alexandre, spokesperson for the Strasbourg supporters’ federation, told BBC Sport.

“It is different to legitimate ambition, and we know someone is going to, at some point, leave for a bigger club. No problem with that.

“But leaving your team in the middle of a season, that’s not OK. That’s not a thing you would do.”

Alexandre has long been a strong critic and described Strasbourg as a “Chelsea B team”.

It stings for club president Marc Keller, too. He took the club from financial ruin in the fifth tier of French football in 2012 and back to the top flight before selling to BlueCo.

Keller recently rejected suggestions Strasbourg had become Chelsea’s “feeder club” in an interview with BBC Sport. That came after it was announced star striker and captain Emmanuel Emegha would join Chelsea at the end of this season.

Rosenior taking the same path appears to weaken his argument.

Keller said he wanted to keep him, but denied reports he had threatened to quit himself if Rosenior went to Chelsea.

“Liam’s departure wasn’t planned,” said Keller, a former midfielder at Strasbourg as well as West Ham, Portsmouth and Blackburn.

“I can understand the surprise, even the disappointment, of some of our supporters.

“And do you think I’m happy about it? The situation was neither planned nor desired by anyone at the club. Sometimes, you have to adapt in football.”

Half of the Premier League is now in some form of multi-club ownership (MCO). But those clubs are at the top of the food chain and would not have experience of being the poorer relative.

The City Football Group has Manchester City as its core club, and full control of teams in Italy, France, Brazil, Australia, Uruguay and Belgium. It also owns 47% of Girona in Spain.

Red Bull is a majority owner of teams in Germany, Austria, the United States and Brazil, with minority stakes in other clubs, including Leeds United.

These are major football operations, MCO behemoths. Players and managers will move between entities. It is like an employee getting promoted through a multi-national company.

Head coach Jesse Marsch, for instance, went from New York Red Bulls to Salzburg to Leipzig. But never in the middle of a season.

Other MCOs are set up share ideas and enjoy relative growth, such as Tony Bloom’s interest in Brighton, Union Saint-Gilloise, Hearts and Melbourne Victory.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos owns 100% of Nice and Swiss club FC Lausanne-Sport, but only 28.94% of Manchester United. But his decisive influence in football operations at Old Trafford is enough to trigger one of Uefa’s indicators of an MCO.

Chelsea and Strasbourg’s two-club MCO is “unique”, football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Sport.

While most MCOs tend to be football focused, he added BlueCo is more of a hedge-fund strategy. That means bringing in assets that are low value and selling them on high returns.

“Strasbourg are perhaps slightly adrift in the sense they are seen as a holding area of talent that perhaps Chelsea want to bring to the club at a later point,” said Maguire.

“You could argue that’s the case with Rosenior, to get experience at another part of the Chelsea empire.

“BlueCo target younger players, they put them on long-term contracts. The players deliver and the value of the player is locked in.”

Strasbourg now have a football team that appears to be going places and that could not have happened without BlueCo.

It has worked the other way, too, in transfer spending.

Strasbourg twice broke their record fee received in 2025. First Sunderland paid £27.3m to sign academy product Habib Diarra. Then Nottingham Forest spent £30.3m on Dilane Bakwa, giving Strasbourg a £27.1m profit on a player who came from Bordeaux as one of the first BlueCo signings.

BlueCo would argue that without its involvement, these players – who are evidence of its strategic model – would be sold sooner, and for less.

Transfers by market forces are part of the game, as Alexandre alluded to, but the inter-MCO transfers have raised eyebrows.

Eleven players have moved between Chelsea and Strasbourg, with the Ligue 1 club largely benefiting from loans and the arrival of England left-back Ben Chilwell in September.

There are strange cases, though, like Ishe Samuels-Smith, who moved to Chelsea from Everton’s academy in 2023 and has never played a first-team game. In July, the 19-year-old full-back joined Strasbourg, only to return to Chelsea on transfer deadline day in September and immediately be loaned to Swansea City.

Defender Mamadou Sarr was sold to Chelsea in the summer, but made only one appearance as a substitute at the Fifa Club World Cup and is now back at Strasbourg on loan for this season.

Emegha will become the 12th player in July. With 14 Ligue 1 goals last season and seven in 11 in all competitions this campaign, the Dutch forward’s departure is more significant.

Strasbourg are finding out that things are not always rosy down the food chain.

They are not the only fans to show their displeasure, either.

For instance, in May 2024 supporters of fellow French club Troyes, part of the City Football Group, protested by throwing flares on to the pitch and getting a match against Valenciennes abandoned.

Troyes had been facing back-to-back relegations to the third tier and were saved only by the bankruptcy of Bordeaux. They are now clear at the top of Ligue 2.

Fans can protest but there appears little football’s authorities can do to roll back on MCOs despite genuine concerns over the integrity of competitions.

Technically Fifa could restrict international transfers between the clubs, but that is not on the table.

Fifa does have jurisdiction within its own competitions. It removed Mexico’s Club Leon from last summer’s Club World Cup due to their association with Pachuca.

Uefa is getting tougher but has the same restrictions. Crystal Palace, Drogheda United and FC DAC 1904 became the first clubs ever to face demotion or removal from a competition this season for being in a multi-club structure.

It just so happened Strasbourg played Palace in the Europa Conference League. The French club’s ultras held up banners in solidarity with the Eagles when the two clubs met in November.

Last season Chelsea and Strasbourg could have been in the same European competition, but BlueCo took steps to be compliant with Uefa’s rules so both would be admitted. In the end that move was not tested, but it may be needed another time.

Uefa is expected to go further but whether it has the power to do anything which would halt MCOs is debatable.

For Adam Phillips and Vimal Yoganathan, it could be the fulfilment of a lifelong dream when Barnsley take on Liverpool at Anfield on Monday.

The two Tykes midfielders came through the Liverpool academy – with Yoganathan spending seven years on Merseyside and Phillips eight – before they were released.

Alongside some of their other team-mates, like defender Josh Earl, the pair are both Liverpool supporters too.

“I was buzzing [when the draw happened],” Phillips, 27, tells BBC Sport. “I ran upstairs screaming at my missus. I couldn’t believe it, I’m still a massive Liverpool fan.

“I was at the 4-0 [Champions League] win against Barcelona in 2019. If Liverpool are on, I’m zoned in and whenever I can, I’ll go to Anfield to watch them too.

“There’s me, Vimal and a few other Liverpool fans in the side. I’ve got more than 30 tickets for my family and friends. They’ll all be in the away end getting behind the boys.

For Yoganathan, who turns 20 on Tuesday, there is the opportunity to add Anfield alongside Old Trafford and Wembley as some of the iconic grounds he has played at already.

Last season, Barnsley played Manchester United in the Carabao Cup and the Welshman also played an influential role as Oldham won promotion to League Two via the play-offs at Wembley after he joined them on loan in January.

Earlier this season, he became the first Tamil footballer to score in the EFL when he netted against Doncaster Rovers in League One. Yoganathan’s family hail from Sri Lanka and the teenager grew up in Trelawnyd, a village in North Wales.

“A lot of their players in their career may not even play at one of them so it’s mad that I get to do all three in the space of just over a year,” Yoganathan tells BBC Sport.

Yoganathan was a ball boy at Anfield in 2018 when Divock Origi scored an injury-time winner against Everton in the Premier League, and “loved watching” Philippe Coutinho when he was in the club’s academy.

As for Phillips, who retired from cycle speedway at 16 after winning British titles, there is a link with Coutinho too.

“I was 16 when I went to America with the first team for a pre-season tour in 2014 under Brendan Rodgers and I got subbed on for Coutinho in one of the games. It was surreal,” he recalls.

“I’d just left school and was training with Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Coutinho.”

Such was the hype around Yoganathan’s signing that Rodgers, the Liverpool boss at the time, was there on the day he joined at the age of eight. The Reds had scouted him when he was six.

“I’ve still got the picture framed up at home with me next to Brendan and my parents,” says Yoganathan.

Yet by 2021, he was looking for another club. That was when Bobby Hassell, the academy manager at Barnsley – who also played in the cup tie at Anfield 18 years ago – gave him an opportunity in South Yorkshire.

“It was tough [getting released],” says Yoganathan. “Any lad who’s been released from a football club knows it’s one of the most devastating experiences, but it’s helped me overcome challenges.

“As a person, it’s helped me become more resilient. Football’s a game of opinions. One person might start you in League One whereas other coaches didn’t want to give me a chance in academy games. I’ve learned to overcome that and become more resilient.”

Yoganathan’s footballing journey has been well documented as a trailblazer for South Asians and the teenager insists it’s all a bit “mad”.

And so to Monday night under the lights against what is expected to be a strong Liverpool side.

Brian Howard, who scored the injury-time winner when the sides last met in 2008, was at Oakwell with the squad earlier in the week.

Barnsley have won at Anfield on their last two visits, with their last defeat at Liverpool coming in 1959.

While 57 places separate the teams, the omens are good for Conor Hourihane’s side. Either way, the conversations have already started in the dressing room about which Liverpool shirt to swap for.

“We’ve had a little bit [of chat],” says Yoganathan. “We don’t know who’s playing but there’s loads of players whose shirts I’d want.

“I’ve liked watching Huge Ekitike and obviously [Virgil] van Dijk would be an amazing one. There’s loads. I’ll take anyone’s shirt and be happy.”

For Phillips though, there is a little bone to pick.

“I went to the same school as Curtis Jones, although he’s a bit younger, so potentially his or Van Dijk’s shirt would be class,” he adds.

“But Curtis unfollowed me on Instagram so he must think he’s big time now. Trent [Alexander-Arnold] still follows me and responds but I’ll have to have a word with Curtis on the pitch.”

Regardless of who follows who on social media and the amount of Liverpool fans in this Barnsley side, the aim is clear – to follow in the footsteps of the Tykes heroes who knocked out the Reds and Chelsea before losing to Cardiff in the FA Cup semi-final 18 years ago.

“We’re aiming for a win,” says Yoganathan.