Football: Super League against UEFA, European justice must deliver a crucial verdict

2023-12-21 08:28:13

Triumph for UEFA or earthquake worthy of the Bosman ruling? The European Court of Justice settles this Thursday the conflict surrounding the short-lived Super League project, which raises essential questions for the future of European football. The issue may seem less burning than in April 2021, when twelve major clubs announced their own private competition, with enormous commercial potential, with an offensive launched at midnight just before a vast reform of the Champions League, which is in direct competition .

Attacked by surprise, UEFA and Fifa had threatened sanctions. And the disastrous communication from the mutineers and then the strong opposition from supporters, particularly in England, had prompted several countries to consider legislative measures, pushing nine of the rebel clubs to throw in the towel and derailing the adventure in less than 48 hours. Two years later, only Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have not disarmed, while Juventus Turin – which lost its ex-boss Andrea Agnelli at the end of 2022 due to legal proceedings in Italy for management irregularities – withdrew from the project in July.

But the threat of a partial secession of the most powerful clubs, who dream of the very lucrative model of North American closed leagues while wanting to remain in the national championships, has hovered over European football for more than twenty years and could resurface at any time. moment.

Favorable opinion to UEFA

The outcome of the European procedure is therefore crucial, especially since the promoters of the Super League launched in October 2022 a structure called A22 Sports Management, which intends to challenge the “monopoly” of UEFA, in the interest of “ supporters, clubs and football,” she insists.

Technically, the CJEU will rule on several questions submitted in 2021 by a Madrid judge: by subjecting any tournament in Europe to its authorization, and by providing for sanctions against clubs and players who defy its authority, UEFA is “abusing her from her dominant position”? The opinion of the Court’s Advocate General, Athanasios Rantos, is enough to encourage optimism in the European confederation, since he estimated in December 2022 that the rules laid down by UEFA and Fifa were “compatible with the competition law” of the European Union.

But if its conclusions are frequently followed, they do not bind the CJEU. And each nuance of the ruling will be important for club football, and more broadly for sports regulation on the Old Continent. One point has already been established: the CJEU will apply the two classic criteria of its jurisprudence, by investigating whether UEFA’s anti-rebellion measures pursue “legitimate objectives” and are “proportionate”.

What possible sanctions?

The first question poses few difficulties, since the European treaties explicitly protect the continental “sporting model”, based on a promotion-relegation system and on a partial redistribution of revenues to finance mass sport. UEFA, regularly criticized due to the concentration by a handful of clubs of financial resources, talents and trophies, continues to recall its efforts to open its competitions – in particular with the launch since 2021-2022 of the Europa Conference League , much less elitist than the Champions League.

The European body also strengthened its “solidarity” payments last September, increasing from 7 to 10% the share of revenue from the three European Cups paid to teams which do not participate in their main round. But it will remain to be determined which measures appear “proportionate” to protect this model: financial sanctions against mutinous clubs? Retaliation against their players, to the point of excluding them from international competitions, as Fifa and UEFA had envisaged in April 2021?

This last measure, a lethal weapon for the authorities since it would amount to depriving the best players on the planet of the World Cup and Euro, was for example judged excessive last year by Advocate General Rantos.