UEFA and the Super League: who is calling who a cartel?

Abstract

The football industry finds itself at a turning point. Through the recent rise and steep fall of the Super League, the concept of a super breakaway league in football is once again at the center of the discussions among football stakeholders. Whilst the key discussion points of such breakaway projects seem to be primarily of a commercial and political nature, EU competition law could also have a crucial impact on the success rate of these initiatives. Sports governing bodies often build in control mechanisms which require their consent prior to the establishment of new third-party competition, often complemented with a severe sanctioning mechanism for athletes participating in non-authorized events. In the ISU case, the European Commission and the General Court found such an ex-ante control mechanism to be contrary to EU competition law in certain circumstances. This Article will analyze UEFA’s ex-ante control system in light of the decision in the ISU case. If the football pyramid desires to uphold its control mechanism it should introduce objective, non-discriminatory, transparent, and proportionate criteria, as well as proportionate sanctions. This article will also analyze whether the Super League's own set-up is compliant with EU competition law.

Innovation, infocommunication and digital transformation in sport policing and certain aspects of sports

“…Based on the experience of previous world competitions, it can be safely stated that dialogue and information exchange are basic conditions for making good and balanced decisions, and the key to solving security issues. The use of new information technologies will be essential for the successful conduct of the event (Houben et al, 2022).…”

The geopolitics of the European super league: A historiographical approach and a media analysis of the failed project in 2021

“…Although the Super League project is recent, it has already attracted academic attention. Just a few months after the failure of the project, different authors began publishing editorials or short commentaries in prominent journals highlighting the research perspectives that it has opened (26,(35)(36)(37)(38)(39). Furthermore, in tandem with the Super League project, a PhD dissertation (8) was published highlighting the need to revise the competitive structure of European competitions in order to improve the competitive balance between the clubs.…”

EU normative actorness in sport

“…33 According to Niemann and De Wekker, it is norms that are front and '..centre of relations' when it comes to the EU-SGB interaction. 34 Arguably, one of the ways by which norms are promoted is through involvement with SGBs and other actors affected by EU law externalization. 35 An example in this regard is when the EU was able to uphold the norm of respect for human rights by guaranteeing a minimum protection of individual privacy rights of athletes when commenting on the revision of the World Anti-Doping Code.…”