Football’s Super League gets win at EU top court

European football was rocked on Thursday, as the top European Union court ruled that governing bodies UEFA and FIFA breached competition law by attempting to block the breakaway Super League.

The ruling sets up a battle for the future of football in Europe.

The governments of France and Italy now want to lead an EU push to legislate against Super League-style projects. They plan to move soon as January.

On Thursday, the Court of Justice said that the governing bodies had abused their dominant position running the sport and that “FIFA and UEFA rules making any new interclub football project subject to their prior approval, such as the Super League, and prohibiting clubs and players from playing in those competitions, are unlawful.”

The judgment is a shock for football on the Continent and threatens to upend nearly 70 years of established governance of the world’s most popular sport.

Real Madrid and Barcelona, fronted by Super League promoter company A22 Sports, had accused UEFA of running an illegal monopoly in European football and aimed to topple it from its position as European football’s competition organizer and regulator.

While the Spanish giants’ dreams of creating a Super League still face hurdles — including other top clubs’ unwillingness to join their project — Thursday’s ruling opened a door for them.

In a statement, Bernd Reichart, CEO of A22 Sports, said: “We have won the right to compete. The UEFA monopoly is over. Football is free. Clubs are now free from the threat of sanctions and free to determine their own futures.”

“For fans: We propose free viewing of all Super League matches. For clubs: Revenues and solidarity spending will be guaranteed,” he added.

Judges were giving their advice on EU law to a Madrid court which will rule on the final details of the Super League legal challenge.

The Luxembourg-based court did note that its ruling “does not mean that a competition such as the Super League project must necessarily be approved,” but it did come down hard on UEFA’s laws at the point the Super League was launched.

“The FIFA and UEFA rules making any new interclub football project subject to their prior approval, such as the Super League, and prohibiting clubs and players from playing in those competitions, are unlawful,” judges wrote.

“There is no framework for the FIFA and UEFA rules ensuring that they are transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate,” the court said.

“Moreover, given their arbitrary nature, their rules on approval, control and sanctions must be held to be unjustified restrictions on the freedom to provide services,” it said.

UEFA argues that those rules have since been amended, via a subsequent modification to the statute book.

In a statement, the governing body said the "ruling does not signify an endorsement or validation of the so-called "super league;" it rather underscores a pre-existing shortfall within UEFA’s pre-authorization framework, a technical aspect that has already been acknowledged and addressed in June 2022."

"UEFA is confident in the robustness of its new rules, and specifically that they comply with all relevant European laws and regulations," it said.

The European Club Association, the umbrella body representing the Continent’s biggest football clubs, said it "will continue to work hand-in-hand with UEFA — our main stakeholder — and FIFA, together with all recognized stakeholders of football to develop the game positively and progressively — founded on the principles of sporting meritocracy, inclusiveness, open competition and solidarity."

Football fans were a vital force in killing off the initial Super League project in 2021, and in a statement Thursday, umbrella organization Football Supporters Europe said: "Whatever comes next, the Super League remains an ill-conceived project that endangers the future of European football. FSE, our members, and fans across Europe will continue to fight it."

Across three different rulings at the top court on Thursday, the argument that sports hold a special status in EU law was torpedoed by the top court judges.

The Court separately backed a European Commission finding that the International Skating Union was wrong to have stopped two skaters from participating in rival tournaments. And judges also found in favor of the Royal Antwerp Football Club’s bid to overturn UEFA rules saying that team spots be reserved for locally trained players.

A dozen of Europe’s leading football clubs set up the Super League in April 2021 but the project collapsed after several clubs pulled out following two days of vociferous opposition from fans, high-profile players and coaches, other clubs and politicians.

Organizers of the rebel league, however, promptly complained to a Madrid court that UEFA and FIFA were running an illegal monopoly in European football. The Madrid court then referred the case to EU judges.

The cases are C-333/21 European Superleague Company, C-124/21 P International Skating Union and C-680/21 Royal Antwerp Football Club.

This article has been updated throughout with comment.