Big defeat for UEFA in court: is the European Super League coming now?

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The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (ECJ) issued a ruling on Thursday morning that is likely to have left UEFA bosses in stitches: According to this, the association may not sanction clubs that want to develop a rival competition to the Champions League.

In concrete terms, this concerns the project ‘The Super League’, which was initiated by twelve major clubs in the spring of 2021 and is still being pursued today by the Spanish giants Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. UEFA threatened clubs that wanted to set up formats outside their association structure with financial sanctions and exclusion from the European Cup and national competitions. UEFA referred to the European sports model, in which one association is responsible for each sport.

Real and Barca believe this is against EU law. And now they are getting justice from the highest authority. Surprisingly, before the verdict was announced, it was assumed that UEFA would win.

According to the judge’s ruling on Thursday morning, the rules were “not proportionate”. This also applies to the fact that FIFA and UEFA have exclusive control over the commercial exploitation of the competitions. From the court’s point of view, UEFA’s monopoly position is contrary to European law regarding freedom of competition. This is a success for the Super League.

What happens next is unclear. In any case, Real and Barcelona have nothing to fear from UEFA if they go ahead with their Super League plans. The only question is whether they will find fellow activists: after violent fan protests, the other ten initiators quickly said goodbye to the Super League idea in April 2021. It remains to be seen whether Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Milan, Juve and Co. will get back on the bandwagon after the groundbreaking ruling of the Court of Justice.

Source : Blick