Athanasios Rantos, general counsel of the European Union, determined this Thursday that FIFA and UEFA did not abuse their dominant position in the European football competitions they run when they threatened sanctions against Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus, the clubs defending the Super League project, the alternative continental tournament whose creation was announced on April 18, 2021.
"The FIFA and UEFA rules that make the creation of any new competition subject to prior authorization are compatible with Union law on competition," the European Court of Justice said in a statement. "Union competition rules do not prohibit FIFA, UEFA, their member associations or their national leagues from threatening clubs with sanctions if they participate in a project (...) that could violate the legitimate objectives pursued by these federations", stresses the lawyer.
The lawyer's opinion is not binding, but it is usually the final position that European justice ends up adopting in two out of three cases. Now, a period of four to six months opens in which the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), made up of a commission of 15 judges, will make a final decision by simple majority that will transfer to court 17 of the Mercantil de Madrid, where the three clubs went on April 20, 2021 to request precautionary measures against possible sanctions from UEFA. The continental confederation subsequently opened, on May 25, 2021, a file against Real Madrid, Barça and Juventus.
"UEFA welcomes the unequivocal conclusions presented today by Advocate General Rantos, which constitute an encouraging step towards preserving the current dynamic and democratic governance structure of the European football pyramid," the UEFA governing body said in a statement. European football, which pending a final ruling will continue to work "in close cooperation with the national federations, leagues, clubs, players, fans, EU institutions, governments and other interested parties that have in the heart the true values of football".
The confederation chaired by Aleksander Ceferin froze the disciplinary proceedings against the 'rebel' clubs when the precautionary measures were accepted. A negative resolution from the European courts would open a complicated scenario for Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, the three clubs of the 12 founders still firm in the Super League project, which could even be excluded from the competitions governed by UEFA. .
On July 1, 2021, the Madrid court, then directed by the substitute judge Manuel Ruiz de Lara and now in the hands of Sofía Gil, brought the case to Luxembourg alleging that UEFA could be incurring a possible infringement of articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.
The rector of European football, together with LaLiga, presented a challenge in September 2021 at the Provincial Court of Madrid against magistrate Ruiz de Lara, which was rejected, but later, in April, the Mercantile Chamber accepted his appeal for the lifting of the precautionary measures, so that from then on UEFA had a free hand to impose sanctions.
In addition to UEFA and the ECA (European Club Association), presided over by Nasser Al Khelaifi, PSG's chief executive officer, the Super League has also encountered direct opposition from domestic leagues, including Spain, the only person involved in the proceedings, and especially that of its president, Javier Tebas, who despite his differences with UEFA has always criticized the selfishness and lack of solidarity that, in his opinion, the Super League represents in relation to more modest clubs.
"LaLiga is certain that the current European sports model, which has the backing of the European institutions, allows an adequate development of our sport, from the grassroots to the professional categories, with an adequate coexistence between the national leagues and the European competitions", communicated the employers' association of Spanish clubs.
The domestic competition led by Tebas takes advantage of the statement to denounce that the existence of the Super League, "a league designed to enrich the biggest clubs and concentrate power in a small number of teams that already dominate European football", would cause it to be break "the dream of millions of fans of national competitions" and "the loss of tens of thousands of jobs", in addition to "drastically reducing the tax revenue of public coffers throughout the continent".
At first, the Super League, which promises great economic gains to the participating teams, was designed to host the theoretically 16 strongest teams on the continent, of which only two were going to alternate, but faced with the opposition of European football they opened up to change the format to make it more inclusive. "We support her. She will address problems and provide solutions, and we will have a more even competition," the president of Barça, Joan Laporta, recently said, while his counterpart at Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, who is also president of the Super League, assured that the new competition "is freedom" and not "what they have wanted to misrepresent". The other great defender of the project is Andrea Agnelli, who nevertheless resigned as president of Juventus on November 28.
