After a first unsuccessful attempt, in April 2021, the European Football Super-League project was thought to have been definitively abandoned. Not really, the negotiations have always taken place and it seems that UEFA, the European body, is starting to worry about a probable return. Until a definitive revolution?
Remember, in April 2021, after months of economic suffering linked to the covid19 crisis and its consequences on the championships, 13 major European clubs launched an autonomous, private and independent competition: the Super-League.
Based on the model of the American leagues, without a relegation system, with internal regulation and without the possibility of rewarding external sporting merit, the objective was to catch up with the economic return of football against its North American competitors.
At the time, most of the promoters of this project, including Andrea Agnelli, president of Juventus Turin, were surprised that the most popular competition, the Champions League, of the most popular sport in the world, football, is not able to generate as much money as the very specific NFL, the North American US football league, with its 6 billion dollars a year in TV rights. The fault lay directly with UEFA, incompetent in its management and in the organization of commercial rights. We had to take power and change everything.
Only, the fans did not hear it that way and banded together against this Super-League. Throughout Europe, in less than 48 hours, demonstrations by supporters took place. On the political side, the same commotion. As soon as the announcement was made, Boris Johnson, on the British side, and Emmanuel Macron, on the French side, called for changing the laws in order to ban this dissent. The clubs gave up and the project was buried, stillborn.
We then thought the definitive thing, that we would hear no more about such an idea, that continental football was going to resume the thread of its history, accompanied by UEFA. But, less than a year later, all the rumors have reappeared! In fact, you have to understand something, the project was never nipped in the bud, its promoters have always kept its encephalogram awake. Better still, indirectly, through an action by the Commercial Court of Madrid, a request was filed with the Court of Justice of the European Union in order to verify whether UEFA had the right, according to the EU treaties who defend and protect free and undistorted competition, to hold a monopoly over football organisations. In other words, if the European body had the right to direct, without constraint,
And this is precisely where tensions have re-emerged. The decision of the CJEU should be given in the next few weeks, some observers speak of May 2022, and, according to what is said behind the scenes, the judges should give reason to the dissidents, the last 3 which are Barca, Real Madrid and Juventus. Questioned off, experts believe that the Court cannot go against the European texts and the treaties voted by the commission, that it cannot make an exception for football, whereas in other disciplines, like in basketball or speed skating, competition is king. We should therefore expect a new earthquake in football, after the Bosman judgment of 1995 which recorded the liberalization of transfers.
Knowing this, while the promoters of the Super-League had leaked information concerning the new frame of their project, based on an open system, recognized by FIFA, meritocratic, where the qualifications would go through the classification in the national championships, a Champions League 2.0 finally, UEFA would have accelerated its communication in its favor and sharpened its knives.
As early as February, we learned in particular, with the ECA, the club union now headed by Nasser al-Khelaïfi, that the TV rights contract, for the period 2024-2027, was going to be significantly increased, from 3 billion to 5 billion per year, including earnings from the Champions League, the Europa League and the Europa League Conference. Similarly, while it was a request from the rebellious clubs, the ECA would have obtained a right of inspection and decision-making power in the management of the commercial rights of UEFA competitions. Everything was done, in a way, to pull the rug out from under the opponents’ feet.
And it’s not over. Last Thursday, March 3, while the very serious English media, the Financial Times, organized a seminar dedicated to professional football, the local press poured out on a probable return of the Super-League. It did not take less for Alexander Céférin, the president of UEFA, and Javier Tebas, the president of the Spanish League, to openly vilify the partisans of the sling, associating them with Vladimir Putin, in the midst of the Ukrainian conflict and accusing them of taking advantage of the war to sneak this project through. Real concern or set-up to flout the reputation of opponents? We are entitled to ask ourselves the question since when questioned, everyone says that nothing has been acted on for the moment and that everything will depend on the decision, not yet given, of the CJEU.
In fact, we don’t know. All we know is that this project is not over and that it should certainly reappear in the coming weeks. We only remain focused on the CJEU’s decision, everything will depend on that…
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