The Spanish justice system considers that FIFA and UEFA “have abused their dominant position” by opposing the Super League, semi-closed competition project that was about to implode European football in 2021, according to a recently published decision whose scope is currently uncertain.
The two levels of world and European football must stop “anti-competitive conduct”, which includes “unjustified and disproportionate restrictions”, a Madrid commercial court demands in its decision.
As planned, the judge Sofia Gil endorses the reasoning presented last December by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), who disapproved the FIFA and UEFA regulations in force in 2021, but later modified, and which was intended to block the creation of tournaments continental.
At that time, FIFA and UEFA They submitted the creation of any new competition project to “their prior authorization”, under threat of sanctions to the clubs and players who took part, but without clear criteria.
The two football bodies claimed “the discretionary power to prohibit participation in alternative competitions and impose unjustified and disproportionate restrictions”, something that goes against European competition law, according to Spanish justice.
This decision by the Madrid commercial court, attended by A22 Sports Management, a structure created to launch a European Super League, the project led by the two big Spanish football clubs, real Madrid and Barcelona, In theory it offers a way to launch a private European competition.
But like the CJEU, the Madrid judge does not authorize a new competition, “but rather lays the foundations to channel a system of free competition for the organization of football competitions,” the judge specified in her ruling.
Therefore, there is no guarantee that the new project announced at the end of 2023 by A22, a continental super championship with three divisions and 80 participating teams, will end up seeing the light.
Especially since UEFA defended after the CJEU ruling that the legal vacuum denounced by European justice had been corrected with a modification of the regulations approved in June 2022 that provides in detail the criteria to be met for new competitions and tournaments to be authorized. in Europe.
Politically and, above all, economically, the promoters of the Super League are still looking for solutions to the problems that led to the failure of the first project, just 48 hours after being presented in April 2021.
They went down
Launched in 2021 by twelve clubs, including Real Madrid, Barcelona and the Italians Inter, Milan and Juventus, the first sketch of the Super League was soon buried by threats from UEFA and FIFA.
Despite the enormous economic potential of this closed tournament, the six participating English clubs quickly threw in the towel in the face of opposition from their fans and the risk of legislative measures announced by the British government.
Of those twelve promoters, only Real Madrid and Barcelona remain, something that did not prevent the president of the Catalan club Joan Laporta from promising at the beginning of February the launch “starting next season, or in 2025-2026” of the new tournament.
If so, with what participants? The other ten initial promoters have turned their backs on the project, the German clubs and PSG have always shown their refusal to participate, and other possible candidates to play do not express themselves.
“I hope they start their fantastic tournament with two clubs,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin mocked, trying to minimize the impact of the CJEU’s decision.
“We’re not going to try to stop them; they can create whatever they want,” he added defiantly.
Source: Ambito
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
