The historic ruling of the European Court opens new scenarios for the SuperLega but it’s chaos between FIFA, national federations and clubs: here’s what could happen.
Mattia Grassani, a lawyer and sports law expert, spoke to TVPlay’s microphones to clarify what could happen after the European Court’s ruling regarding the Superleague. For Grassani, the principle reaffirmed repeatedly by the European Court is economic and commercial liberalism. “In 2023 monopolistic or exclusive positions are no longer tolerated. However, it was thought that in soccer FIFA and UEFA could get away with this round as well. “
According to the interviewee, it is not yet possible to define the scope of this ruling, “We can make reasoning or hypothesize application scenarios but certainly something historic has happened. The ruling dismantled the principle that you can only do professional sports within certain acronyms. And this means that a parallel league to the national one could be made.”
According to Grassani, however, it will be complicated for anything new to arise in soccer, as staffs, players, and individual federations have taken positions against the Superleague and for now chaos of intentions dominates. “In the case the TV rights and revenues will not be managed by only one entity, and the scope of this decision is certainly revolutionary. But it is too early to say whether it will have the same effects as the Bosman one. “
Superleague: “For now only chaos and programmatic statements. “
“The Luxembourg ruling does not speak about the number of mandates and electoral weights, Ceferin will be able to continue to be the president of UEFA,” the interviewee continued. “But his monopoly that goes back to the principle of competition and market freedom within the sports business has been demolished. This decision puts clubs back at the center of any football project and they are no longer a number in a chessboard run exclusively by a few bodies. “
(De Laurentiis (LaPresse)
“From now on to organize competitions, to prevent clubs from joining other partners, they must necessarily sit at the table. At that point they will have a weight that until now they have not had or have been able to claim only marginally.”
“I have not heard from President De Laurentiis,” the lawyer continued. “Certainly right now we are at the fine words, programmatic statements and ongoing deployments. Today the clubs that say absolutely no and are against it, tomorrow morning when faced with a concrete business plan with a higher UEFA contracts I don’t think they will continue to hold these positions and would probably change their minds. “