The Superlega will have a legal answer to its fate in a few months, after a new year of unknowns about a project that maintains the loyalty of real Madrid
Barcelona
Juventus
Even if he still has to wait for fifteen judges of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) to give a final ruling, probably in spring 2023his name has remained very present in the chronicles of the year that is ending and in the debates of the most bizarre part of football and sport.
The project greets 2022 with an initial assessment by the CJEU which a priori does not help it, although its promoters take a different reading and draw positive conclusions.
The conclusion of the general counsel of the CJEU on the case, the Greek Athanasios Rantos, is this “The FIFA and UEFA rules making the creation of any new competition subject to prior authorization are compatible with EU competition law.”
Its opinion is not binding, but the CJEU estimates that its judges follow the line of these previous opinions in around 80% of cases.
With this message on the table and trying to say that it will be “an open and meritocratic competition”, The Super League assures that it is still “very much alive” and underlines that the sentence “makes it clear that UEFA must open access to the market and have very clear rules”, because “it cannot be all at once, regulate the competition and market access”.
This sentence was pronounced on 16 December by the German Bernd Reichard, the name and face of the project since last October he was appointed general manager of the company in charge of contributing to its creation, A22 Sports Management, the company which sued UEFA and FIFA for abuse of a dominant position and hinder the free competition guaranteed by the EU treaties by blocking its creation.
Following his appointment, Reichard requested to speak to UEFA and agreed to do so accompanied by European leagues, clubs, players and fan federations in early November. UEFA argued then and even now that rejection of the project continues to be overwhelming. The other side insisted that they are working to reform football and the need for dialogue.
That meeting at UEFA headquarters in Nyon (Switzerland) was one of those held this year between the two sides after the one held in July at the CJEU headquarters in Luxembourg, where La Liga and the Spanish Federation have also lined up against the Super League, just like the Spanish state.
In parallel to the debate, the citizens’ initiative launched by the European fan group Football Supporters Europe (FSE) and entitled with the slogan “Win it on the pitch” was launched against the project last spring and the commercial court number 17 in Madrid awaits the European court ruling, which he turned to when he received the complaint in April 2021.
Under a new title, which will have to be resolved as the CJEU does, in April Judge Sofía Gil revoked the precautionary measures that her predecessor, Manuel Ruiz, had taken a year earlier and which avoided any type of sanction for the clubs involved and imposed the closure of the disciplinary proceedings opened by UEFA against Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus.
This presented its new Champions League model from the 2024/25 season. A format with 36 teams, four more than now, who will play eight rounds to help make matches more interestingbut always with the principles of unity, solidarity and inclusion that in his opinion the Super League does not offer.
