UEFA and FIFA's "abuse of dominant power" opens the door to Super League after landmark ruling
One of the most awaited days in the history of world football has arrived. The ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) takes a stance on the organisation of UEFA and FIFA competitions and, more importantly, on their ability to sanction clubs that decide to join other projects, as has been the case with the Super League.
"FIFA and UEFA are abusing their dominant position" confirms one of the paragraphs of the ruling, which gives the green light for football to change in the coming years towards a much more powerful business model than the one we know now.
The idea defended by Florentino Pérez
An idea that Florentino Pérez has been defending for years, although with little success in terms of communication with clandestine interviews and without transparency in the rules of the supposed new tournament that seemed closed to new clubs, an idea that changed later and an economic income of dubious origin.
The president of Real Madrid himself has spoken out about this ruling in a historic appearance in the club's media. "I anticipate two conclusions of great historical significance. Firstly, that European club football is not and will never again be a monopoly. And, secondly, that from today the clubs will be the masters of their own destiny," commented Pérez as the media machine of the new competition began to work with statements and videos on social networks.
"We have won the right to compete. UEFA's monopoly is over. Football is FREE. Clubs are now free from the threat of sanctions. And free to determine their own future," were the words of Bernd Reichart, CEO of A22, the company behind the Super League, which has announced that matches will be free. Florentino Pérez has insisted that it is not possible to pay 100 euros to watch football in a country where salaries are a thousand euros.
Now it remains for the clubs that fled from this model to speak out, including Juventus, which had to leave the Superliga so that the sanctions imposed by UEFA for inflating transfer prices would be softer.
Then there will be the English clubs, whose supporters are against this system and will do anything to prevent them from participating in the new competition.
One club that is looking forward to the Super League is Barça. Laporta did not travel with the club to Texas to play a friendly match for five million euros in order to follow the ruling from Barcelona and make a statement on the matter. As usual, the azulgrana club is playing both sides. On the one hand, they share their "satisfaction with the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in which the Superliga project is endorsed". On the other hand, they say that Barça "does not intend to go against LaLiga".
Opposing positions
The other interpretation of the ruling is offered by LaLiga and, specifically Javier Tebas, who has been blunt on social networks and has seized on a paragraph to defend that this new tournament has no future.
"The CJEU says that FIFA and UEFA's competition admission rules are transparent, but not that they should admit the Superliga. On the contrary, it points out that the criteria for admission of competitions must be transparent, objective and NON-DISCRIMINATORY. Principles that are precisely incompatible with the Superliga", explains Tebas in his social networks in an intense review of the sentence where he harshly attacks Reichart, of whom he says: "So that it is clear, there are no doubts and some mistakenly go to reopen the bar to drink drinks until 5 in the morning as Bern Reichart CEO seems to have been tonight".
Jaume Roures, founder of Mediapro and now removed from the production company, also expressed his opinion of the sentence in similar terms to those of Tebas, a historic partner of his company. "There are no teams to carry out this project; there are no German, English or French teams. It will not be the Super League, it will be something else"; and he added that "if the broadcast is free-to-air and there is no income from pay-TV because the Champions League is sold until 2027, I wonder all the more why.... Where will all those millions come from? They better put it to me so I don't think I have a chance," he added, referring to the announcement that matches in the new competition will be free to watch.
Meanwhile, the LaLiga teams led by the employers themselves launched a campaign in similar terms to the last time the new competition was proposed with the slogan "Earn it on the pitch!" to make their supporters aware that their clubs could be left out of this competition system if it is finally closed.
There is no doubt that the CJEU ruling will mark the end of a cycle in modern football. The goose that lays the golden eggs will be able to continue to generate much more money than before because clubs have understood that business moves at two speeds and the faster ones want more.
