Just one day after the European Union's general lawyer agreed with UEFA and FIFA by recognizing their power to sanction the clubs that participate in the Super League, the CEO of the company that promotes the competition, the German Bernd Reichart, has defended this Friday in Madrid the validity and the need that in his opinion the tournament has.
In an informative breakfast at the Hotel Ritz, supported by the presidents of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, and Barcelona, Joan Laporta —two of the three clubs that are still in the project together with Juventus—, Reichart wanted to launch a message of optimism about the future of the organization and has highlighted that the opinion of the advisory body of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concludes that it is legal to create a competition outside the UEFA and FIFA systems.
Reichart's speech,
roughly
, has tried to send the message that the conclusion of the general lawyer of the European Union, the Greek Athanasios Rantos, in the case that confronts the international football federations with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus represents a step forward for the competition and not a setback.
However, Rantos' opinion —which does not have to be the same as the ruling that the CJUE will issue next spring, although it usually coincides 80% of the time— yesterday agreed with UEFA when it vetoed the birth of the Super League and threatened participants with expulsion from their competitions.
With everything, Reichart has said that he continues working so that the competition becomes a reality: "In the last weeks, we have been able to have conversations with 30 clubs in more than 10 countries in Europe,
and they share the diagnosis that we make about the current problems of soccer, regardless of the country or the size of the club.
They know that the changes are absolutely necessary.”
Both Reichart's interventions and those of Luis Alonso, who belongs to the Clifford Chance law firm, which exercises the legal defense of the Super League, have focused on what they consider to be the positive aspect of the report by the CJEU advisory body, that is, the recognition that UEFA and FIFA do not have the exclusivity to organize football competitions.
However, Alonso has also been critical of Rantos' resolution.
"Free competition in professional sport is being harmed by relying on an article of the Treaty [of the European Union]," he said about 165, which recognizes the special characteristics of sport and which, according to the EU's general counsel, is the legal umbrella that makes the measures taken by UEFA against the promoters of the Super League proportionate.
“Free competition is the essential pillar of the EU.
This is a mere non-binding opinion, and care must be taken.
We have to wait for the decision," Alonso added, referring to the sentence that the 15 CJEU judges will issue in a few months.
Reichart, former general director of the RTL group, has taken advantage of the event to present his argument for why the Super League is necessary and outline the general lines of how it would work.
"Our approach is an open competition and during the week," said the German in an almost 180 degree turn on the closed competition that the 12 teams that were going to participate in the tournament presented in April 2021, among which were -in addition from Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus—Atlético, six English clubs (Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham), Inter and Milan.
With this initial model, the Super League was going to blow up the principle of meritocracy to access European competitions, resident in the national leagues, which provoked the anger of tens of thousands of fans in the United Kingdom, who took to the streets to demonstrate against the competition.
“The problem in England was the lack of meritocracy, the supposed closed model.
But the polls now say that young people would prefer it”, added Reichart.
The CEO of the Super League, Bernd Reichart, this Friday at the Hotel Ritz, in Madrid. AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)
The CEO of the Super League has insisted that the goal of the competition is to create "innovative formats to engage audiences, and not just offer the best matches from the quarterfinals, from April to May."
“The offer of alternative entertainment has multiplied.
Soccer no longer competes only with cycling or basketball, it competes with Netflix, with HBO, with Amazon Prime, with everything that comes along, ”he defended.
“Also ensure financial
fair play
, the conviction that clubs must live off what they generate.
We must avoid injections of external capital", he explained, in a more or less veiled reference to the so-called club-states, such as Manchester City, financed by the United Arab Emirates through the holding City Football Group, or Paris Saint Germain. , supported by the Qatari government through Qatar Investments.
These teams, which have been making million-dollar investments in the football market for more than a decade, have unleashed the suspicion of traditional clubs, which in recent years have exerted strong pressure on UEFA to take action against what they consider unfair competition. that threatens their hegemonies.
Shortly after the informative breakfast of the CEO of the Super League in Madrid ended, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, gave a press conference in Doha, more than 7,000 kilometers away, in which he announced the holding of the Club World Cup with 32 teams from 2025 and has valued the report of the EU lawyer: “Clearly, it is very positive for FIFA and UEFA.
It recognizes that we have full legitimacy to organize and approve competitions, and that the pyramid system of sport is based on European law.
It confirms what we have been saying for a long time.”
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