But it did not provide details about when it expected to launch or what support it had from specific clubs. Since the EJC's ruling, A22 has revealed plans for three new competitions involving 64 teams, based on league and knock-out formats. What's next for the European Super League? government also said it was working on legislation to prevent English clubs from joining another breakaway competition.īut Reichart said the ESL was not a breakaway league and that it would be compatible with domestic league calendars. Several top club teams, including Manchester United and Bayern Munich, also issued statements saying they remained committed to UEFA's competitions while domestic leagues across Europe rejected the Super League. Supporters of Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur football teams hold scarves reading 'Football is for the fans' in response to the European Super League in April 2021. The court said both regulating and organizing sporting competitions was not an infringement of EU competition law and that sports federations can refuse third parties access to the market, but only if the refusal is justified by genuine objectives.Īt this moment "there is no framework for FIFA and UEFA rules ensuring that they are transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportional," the court ruled. "Clubs are now free from the threat of sanctions and free to determine their own futures." What are the details of the verdict? Football is free," Reichart said in a statement after the ruling. (Fran Santiago/Getty Images)īut in its decision Thursday, the ECJ ruled that FIFA and UEFA had abused their dominant positions and breached EU law by forbidding clubs from joining the breakaway ESL - though it crucially added that the judgment did not necessarily mean such a league must be approved. Players on the Spanish team Granada CF wear T-shirts protesting the plans for a European Super League. Then, in January 2023, a Madrid court backed an earlier order for FIFA and UEFA not to carry out their threats to punish teams and players taking part in the project. Judges from 15 of the 27 EU member states heard arguments over two days, with a majority of those governments supporting UEFA. The ESL clubs' case was heard in July 2022 by the ECJ. It consists of 55 national association members.īernd Reichart, whose sports development company A22 assisted with creating the ESL, said the new league wanted to break what he described as a monopoly of competitions run by UEFA, which has organized pan-European competitions for nearly 70 years. Currently, UEFA governs football in Europe, as well as in some transcontinental and Asian countries. (Carl Recine/AFP/Getty Images) Why has the European Super League come back?ĭespite widespread protests against the ESL, some of the clubs involved claimed UEFA abused its market dominance of European competitions. Read on for a primer on this controversial topic.įans hold a banner reading 'Fans, football, owners, in that order' following the planned introduction of the ESL in April 2021. The court's decision has resurrected the proposal many thought was long dead and buried - much to the dismay of fans who mightily protested against the league in 2021. "We are facing a great opportunity to improve European club football." "Today a Europe of freedoms has triumphed, and also football and its fans have triumphed," said club president Florentino Pérez. That news was celebrated by Spanish soccer giant Real Madrid, which has been leading the fight to get the new competition off the ground. On Thursday, Europe's top court ruled that FIFA, the sport's international governing body, and UEFA, the continent's governing soccer body, acted contrary to EU competition law by blocking plans for a breakaway ESL. More than two years after a European Super League (ESL) proposal rocked the foundations of the soccer world, the ESL has found its way back to the forefront of the sport following a landmark ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ).
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