It is on Thursday morning that the future of European club football will be decided. Or not. Brought to arbitrate the fight between UEFA and its challenger, the Super League, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) will have to decide whether or not the body chaired by Aleksander Ceferin is abusing its dominant position within European football. Did it have the right to threaten with expulsion from its fold the rebels ready to build the foundations of a new giant of club football in 2021? The Spanish courts responded in the negative at the start of the year, while the advocate general of the CJEU considered that UEFA was within its rights. This is just one of many topics to be discussed on Thursday.
In the name of principles as laudable as sporting fairness, of which the Super League project nevertheless seems the antithesis, and even the wallet of supporters, the A22 cabinet, promoter of the dissident competition, intends to eliminate UEFA as as regulator of continental football. And by extension as the sole organizer of European competitions. Very practical when you intend to launch your own. It is no coincidence that in his official communication, the CEO of A22, Bernd Reichart, promises to finally reveal the new format of his Super League in the event of a decision unfavorable to UEFA.
“If it is confirmed that UEFA’s monopoly is illegal, we will finally be able to make public the result of more than a year of consultations. We will offer an open European competition for over 60 clubs ensuring that all are treated equally and fairly. »
An announcement which refers to an article that we published in March, in which a representative of the company responsible for relaying the ambitions of Florentino Perez already mentioned a figure of “40 to 60 clubs” interested in the project, without wanting to name them for fear of reprisals from UEFA and its ally, the ECA, the European club association (led with an iron fist by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi).
Any breach opened by the CJEU will be an opportunity for the Super League
For the moment, all this is still fantasy, even though the president of Real Madrid spends his time recalling the urgent need to create a Super League: “football is going through an unprecedented institutional crisis,” Florentino declared last month. European football does not belong to the UEFA president and Spanish football does not belong to the La Liga president. The Super League is more necessary than ever.”
For now, a total defeat for UEFA appears unlikely. The opinion of the Court’s Advocate General, Athanasios Rantos, has indeed reason 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 competition law” of the European Union. The only glimmers of hope for the Super League: these decisions do not bind the CJEU, which can take another direction.
Furthermore, each nuance of the ruling will be important for club football, and more broadly for sports regulation on the Old Continent, and will potentially constitute new breaches into which rebels could interfere. Conversely, if the organization chaired by Ceferin gets away with it, it will be able to continue to brandish potential rebels with the threat of exclusion from the national championships and its players being refused to participate in the championship. Europe or the World Cup with their national team. And, by extension, to continue to quietly pursue its elitist policy, illustrated by the entry into force next year of a new formula for the Champions League.