Football: The Super League clubs’ major attack on Uefa

In Luxembourg on Monday and Tuesday it was like a bazaar: Dozens of EU representatives, commercial lawyers, lobbyists and football emissaries cavorted in front of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which has appointed a large number of 15 judges. There is a lot at stake, for some it is existential: The lawyers of the Super League, a group of European elite clubs that failed last year, complain about the “iron fist” of the Europa Union Uefa – and want to break their monopoly in European football.

Obligation! right of thumb! monopolies! At first glance, that actually sounds like a threat: is something like this needed in constitutional areas, especially in the borderless part of Europe? However, the viewer’s uneasiness quickly turns around when the view falls on the plaintiff: the remaining three mohicans of that notorious Superliga project, which started in April 2021 from a nightly ambush, are leading the major attack on Uefa from the motive of deep greed worn and shattered within 72 hours by a Europe-wide spontaneous alliance of politics, sport and society.

The litigant trio keeps the then secretly founded European Superleague Society (ESC) alive: Real Madrid under the dazzling property developer Florentino Pérez; FC Barcelona, ​​meanwhile mutated into a financial wrongdoer; and Juventus Turin, whose boss Andrea Agnelli even got into a lot of trouble privately because he weighed his once close friend Aleksander Ceferin, the President of Uefa, hours before the coup was safe.

Six clubs from England, two from Italy and one from Spain dropped out immediately and accepted harsh penalties. Only the three putschists remained stubborn. But of course: They are not concerned with the money that their super league wants to suck out of football with (mostly) exclusively seeded prestigious clubs. Real, Juve and Barça are concerned in court that Uefa is undermining antitrust law. This is how a commercial judge from Perez’s Madrid headquarters carried it before the ECJ. A judge, by the way, from whose activities a certain proximity to the project could be deduced.

Nevertheless: It is now up to the ECJ, and as is well known, nothing is certain in court or on the high seas. Especially when the whole of Europe has a say and the professional football shell players industry is involved.

The ECJ will probably only judge in 2023. Then Uefa hopes that its model will emerge stronger from the process

On the first day of negotiations, the super league presented: Uefa abused its dominant position by regulating European football, organizing continental competitions and severely sanctioning every club, every initiative that wants to compete with their Champions League, according to the lawsuit. That violates EU law.

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Uefa, in turn, defended its business model in the hearing – supported by submissions from many EU countries – as the best possible Sportsmodel: because everything is based on open competitions and because a redistribution of income to amateur sport is guaranteed.

This aspect undermines a core argument of the plaintiffs. They refer to a formally similar cartel question about the International Skating Union (ISU), which is currently being negotiated in Luxembourg. A number of speed skaters who had been banned from participating in a private event by their world association had been sued and won the first instance. The Superliga see that as a model case.

It’s just that, apart from the paragraph heaving, yes, a significant part of Europe plays football, the DFB alone represents seven million members. In comparison, the skating community (like many others) is a tiny niche. And bare cartel questions fall short wherever, in addition to business, the big picture is also at stake, questions of education and other values. About issues of the European community.

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The value aspect is the core of the Uefa argument. On the other hand, that Perez’s savvy team of professionals with gamblers like FC Barcelona, ​​who has just pledged future income for his current shopping spree, would redistribute the profits from their almost closed elite circle better and more fairly, that they wanted that at all – don’t believe that times sports romantic. And so Uefa has a lot of tailwind in Luxembourg: the President of the Council of Europe, plus close cooperation with the European Parliament.

The ECJ will probably only make a judgment in 2023. Then Uefa hopes that its model will even emerge stronger from the process. Otherwise, the football business could be hijacked by Castilian builders, Catalan soldiers of fortune and Piedmontese family clans. And an armada of investors from the Gulf region.