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Brussels fuels the confrontation between Florentino Perez and the UEFA. The intervention of European Comission in the trial of the super league against the rector of European football before the EU Court of Justice has made it clear that there is room for conflict between the parties. Among other things, because the Commission has supported part of the actions of the Swiss entity but has also deactivated one of its weapons of pressure against the wayward.
“It does not seem evident that the sanctions consisting in excluding Super League players from FIFA or UEFA competitions are necessary or proportionate for the defense of the principles of the European soccer model”, they have wielded from the Commission during the trial that takes place in Luxembourg.
The governing body of the EU understands that the expulsions from the Champions League of the Super League teams could be covered by the “legitimate objective” of defending the European football model based on “sporting merit” and “equal opportunities” -without ruling out, in any case, that UEFA’s action sometimes falls “into possible conflicts of interest”-. But, at the same time, the Commission questions that the players of the clubs involved in the project led by the president of Real Madrid are prevented from continuing to represent their countries in competitions of the UEFA-FIFA ecosystem, such as the European Championship or the World Cup, in in case the Super League goes ahead.
“There is no legal support, the players would not be responsible for the decisions of their clubs,” explains the lawyer and director of the Sports Law Institute Tony Rock. The Commission’s argument questions the limits of authority “de facto” from UEFA, to which it has granted the possibility of exercising both as judge and party as long as through it it achieves a “legitimate objective” as the principle of participation based on sporting merit in European football -in line with the countries and European football federations-. And this, above all, with the accent on the fact that the initial model of the breakthrough Super League of 20 teams contemplated the existence of fifteen permanent members -which will be reviewed-.
But even so, the Commission has also reported the possible limits of the entity chaired by Aleksander Ceferin, among them, the aforementioned on the players, as well as the absence until not long ago of a system of authorization rules for players. clubs under its ecosystem to create their own competitions.
The Florentino Super League reveals a legal vacuum
In fact, UEFA did not articulate this system until June of this year, on the eve of the hearing in Luxembourg for the trial that unleashed the Super League chaired and announced by Florentino Pérez in April 2021. The rules of the Swiss entity – now on trial – leave clubs that play another competition at the same time out of the European Cup and threaten economic sanctions equivalent to up to 10% of the turnover of the previous season. The Super League includes Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Juventus, Milan, Atlético de Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester United and City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham.
No less striking is that the new rules approved by Aleksander Ceferin omit penalties for footballers, which ratifies the margin that Florentino and his partners seem to have won. Nevertheless, the Super League has filed a complaint with the same Commission for the conditions set by UEFAsince the unruly consider that these rules are nothing more than a new application of the monopoly that is itself the Swiss private entity and that limits effective competition in the European market.
One of the provisions contained in these regulations prevents requests from clubs involved in the organization of unauthorized competitions in the last five years, as would be the case of the promoters of the Super League. They claim the financial need to continue being part of the FIFA-UEFA-National Leagues system for a few years in order to launch the new model – the Commission has argued during the trial, using documentation provided by FIFA, that the Super League clubs do not they are required to be part of the FIFA-UEFA system and could launch a competition on their own outside.
Different market sources thus point out that the solution after the failure, which is expected in early 2023, would go through an internal reform of UEFA and/or a competition in the orbit of the Super League or at least, in which the clubs gain more weight than they currently have, without this meaning that the Swiss entity ceases to be relevant. “It seems that the Super League clubs did not have their project so tied up, but even so they are partially right in defending their right to organize a competition, as happens in other sports. The two parties have sensible arguments and at the same time other questionable ones”, Rock says. “Probably the outcome will be a new deal.”
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