The judicial battle between the Super League and UEFA enters its final stretch

The judicial battle for the Super League case enters its final stretch.

This Thursday the general counsel of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the Greek Athanasios Rantos, will issue a non-binding report on whether UEFA and FIFA are abusing their dominant position as organizers of international competitions of clubs.

The sentence, against which there is no appeal, is expected for the month of March at the earliest and will not be applied exclusively to football, but to European sport in general.

In lawsuits less complex than this, the opinion of the attorney general usually sets the main lines of the sentence, but in this case the interpretation of European regulations is not so simple.

What is being resolved is whether the groundbreaking project that Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus still maintain on the front line —the other nine founding clubs publicly resigned but have not signed their departure—, breaks the guidelines for the development of sport in the European Union, as defended by UEFA and FIFA, or if both football organizations abuse their dominant position as organizers of international competitions, as the Super League denounced before the Spanish court, which subsequently submitted a six-question preliminary ruling to the CJEU.

The head of the commercial court number 13 of Madrid, Manuel Ruiz de Lara, consulted the CJUE if "prior authorization from UEFA and FIFA is required,

that they have been granted exclusive power to organize or authorize international club competitions in Europe, for a third entity to establish a new pan-European club competition such as the Super League, in particular, when there is no regulated procedure based on objective criteria, transparent and non-discriminatory, and taking into account the possible conflict of interest that affects FIFA and UEFA”.

The sanctioning power of both institutions against the founders of the Super League is also questioned by the Spanish magistrate.

and taking into account the possible conflict of interest that affects FIFA and UEFA”.

The sanctioning power of both institutions against the founders of the Super League is also questioned by the Spanish magistrate.

and taking into account the possible conflict of interest that affects FIFA and UEFA”.

The sanctioning power of both institutions against the founders of the Super League is also questioned by the Spanish magistrate.

The representatives of the Super League insist on emphasizing that the closed and elitist competition model of the project presented in May 2021 that failed due to popular resistance led by fans in the United Kingdom is not being judged.

What has been submitted to the CJEU is whether UEFA, a Swiss-based institution made up of 55 federations, most of them outside the EU territory and with the right to vote, can prevent several clubs from associating to create a league and must have prior authorization from UEFA.

Given the rejection it generated, the promoters of the embryonic Super League plan rectified and now advocate an open competition based on sports meritocracy to access it, the format of which is still unknown.

The legal services of UEFA, for their part, defend that the original project is also being judged because the preliminary questions of the Super League document sent to the CJEU refer to the competition that for three days put the

of the current model.

They also add that there was never a request for authorization for the new championship by its promoters.

If the latter rectified their intention to create a closed league in view of what was reflected in the previous reports of the Committee on Culture and Sport of the European Parliament, UEFA also reacted and established a regulatory framework in June to be able to establish itself as the great guardian of the competitions club internationals.

UEFA trusts that first the general counsel and then the 15 judges who will issue a sentence will bet on the continuity of the current model based on sporting merit and pyramidal redistribution of benefits.

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