On July 11 and 12, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will host two crucial hearings for the future of sport governance in Europe.
On the one hand, you will hear the parties in the International Skating Union (ISU) case in which two skaters were prevented from participating in a competition that was not organized under the ISU umbrella.
Had they participated in such an event, both skaters would have been banned from ISU competitions, potentially for life, and could only challenge it before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, allowing international sports federations to avoid compliance with European Union legislation.
The CJEU will also examine the case of the European Super League to answer the following questions: since EU law guarantees freedom of competition, what could justify UEFA and FIFA, private entities established in Switzerland, having the right to maintain an absolute monopoly on all international competitions, and to heavily penalize those who venture to propose new competitions?
Why should this kind of behavior be allowed in football, when it would be illegal in any other sector?
As fans of European football, committed to ensuring the sustainability of the sport, but above all as EU citizens, we seek to shed light on the realities of this case.
The CJEU is not asked to judge whether the competition format initially proposed by the Super League is adequate.
And let's remember: that initial format was just a starting point, intended to engage in dialogue with UEFA and therefore called to evolve.
The aggressiveness of UEFA's response, which included the opening of disciplinary proceedings against three clubs, reflects UEFA's obsession with perpetuating its monopoly and made any discussion impossible.
More information
UEFA shields itself against the Super League
Monopolies are not welcome in the European Union and are generally bad for any economy.
The EU treaties consider sport to be a special sector, but the EU legislators never really defined what that specificity meant.
This has created a vacuum, currently filled – in a self-proclaimed way – by UEFA and FIFA, mixing, among other things, amateur football and top-level European club football.
The current system lacks transparency and depends on actors based outside the European Union, in Switzerland.
This also means that the EU is not benefiting from the potential of football.
The economic weight of sport is equivalent to 2% of the EU's GDP and 3% of employment.
Delegating the management of our biggest sporting events to organizations outside the EU means that we are relinquishing control over the economic impact created by the competitions.
In addition, football is also a strong catalyst for European identity.
Born and raised in Europe, it is a powerful driver of physical and virtual connectivity across the continent, as well as, increasingly, a globally exciting and attractive export product.
Football is perceived as an instrument of European integration and as a link for the dissemination of principles and values (fair play, fight against racism, equality and respect for opponents) inside and outside Europe's borders.
That is why the CJEU ruling is so important for our continent.
Three historic European clubs are trying to change the
status quo
.
Two are owned by their partners (EU citizens);
the third has been in the care of the same family for a century, a unique case in Europe.
Between them, they have hundreds of millions of followers in Europe and the world.
Although UEFA has tried to portray the Super League as a selfish project where "the rich want to get richer", in reality it is a fight to ensure that other prospects for football, and indeed the sport, are possible and are debated democratically.
We assume that the EU Court of Justice will point out the obvious: the law is the same for everyone, and prevents a private entity from combining the roles of regulator and economic operator to arbitrarily prevent any initiative on the grounds that it endangers its monopoly .
The CJEU's decision on this case is an extraordinary opportunity for the EU's single market and, as a consequence, for EU citizens.
It could also mark a turning point for billions of soccer lovers around the world.
This article is written by:
Paolo Bertinetti, Professor Emeritus, University of Torino;
José Ignacio Conde Ruiz, Professor, Complutense University of Madrid;
Juan José Ganuza, Professor, Pompeu Fabra University;
Gimede Gigante, Professor, Bocconi University;
Juan Francisco Jimeno, Professor, University of Alcalá;
Jerónimo Maillo González-Orús, Professor, CEU San Pablo University;
Valerio Mancini, Professor, Rome Business School;
Alessio Postiglione, Professor, Italian Society of International Organizations;
Roberto Vallina Hoset, Lawyer specializing in Competition Law
.
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