UEFA no longer has a free hand to punish the clubs that make up the Super League

The Super League has won the first battle.

To the third.

Neither FIFA nor UEFA will be able to threaten or hinder the project promoted by clubs like Madrid, Barcelona or Juventus, at least not for now.

And that it is currently stopped, awaiting a resolution from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

While that arrives, the European and world football organizations will not be able to sanction any club.

The precautionary measures requested by A22 Sports Management SL and European Super League Company SL, the companies that support said project – for the creation of an international European competition different from the current Champions League and organized by the clubs themselves – have finally been approved by the courts.

Thus, the Provincial Court of Madrid has estimated this Tuesday the appeal against Commercial Court number 17, which agreed with UEFA in April last year and allowed it to open disciplinary proceedings against said clubs.

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The EU lawyer agrees with FIFA and UEFA and allows them to sanction the clubs that participate in the Super League

In the sentence, to which EL PAÍS has had access, the three magistrates sign a forceful document in favor of the Super League.

"FIFA and UEFA cannot justify their anti-competitive conduct as if they were the only custodians of certain European values, especially if this has to serve as an excuse to sustain a monopoly from which they can exclude or hinder the initiative of what they aspire to be their competitor, the Super League”.

In addition, he explains that the promotion of this new competition should not imply the departure of the clubs that make it up from their respective leagues, as warned by UEFA: "The Super League project would not be incompatible with the fact that the interested clubs could continue taking part in national competitions, which from the point of view of competition law correspond to relevant markets other than international ones at a European level”.

And he adds: "The aggression against free competition occurs from the moment in which from the position of dominance it is trying to influence in a decisive way, through the threat of adopting sanction measures against it, on the subjects that provide the services in the relevant market (clubs and footballers) so that they desist from offering them to the competitor,

The judges warn that in the behavior of UEFA and FIFA "an action that meets all the characteristics of an unjustifiable abuse by whoever holds a position of dominance."

The problem is, the judges also point out, that "the risk that exists of arbitrary use by FIFA and UEFA of their disciplinary powers is not limited to the repercussion of its effects within the competitions they manage, but rather it can also be used, as has clearly been threatened, to discourage any purpose of market operators who are tempted to enter into relations with the competitor.

Thus, the initiative of the entrepreneur who wishes to enter into competition is attacked by the monopolist who does not want it and uses his power to hinder ”.

The sentence of the Madrid justice – the company that promotes the Super League is based in Madrid – comes with three months to go before the final ruling of the CJUE is known, which will decide whether UEFA enjoys a monopoly in the organization of the competitions and, therefore, on the viability of the Super League.

It is this ruling that UEFA now accepts, which points out, in statements to EL PAÍS, that the decision of the Provincial Court "recognizes the paramount importance of the procedure pending before the CJUE."

And it adds: "Following the unequivocal conclusions of the CJEU General Advocate in support of UEFA's central mission of governing European football, UEFA now awaits the CJEU's ruling, which will be notified to the Commercial Court of Madrid so that it can be applied in the main proceedings”.

The advisory body of the CJUE endorsed in a report published in mid-December that the two international federations vetoed, as they intended to do, the creation of the project.

A radically opposite point of view to the one expressed on Tuesday by the Madrid court.

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