Yahoo Finance European Super League: Could European Court of Justice verdict be end of the road?
More than two and a half years after the legal battle began in a commercial court in Madrid, on Thursday the European Super League project – or what is left of it – will receive its definitive judgement from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg.
In the interim the controversial breakaway launched, swiftly collapsed, incurred fines and ban threats for the 12 clubs who signed up, led to rule changes and new alliances, but it has, just about, limped on as a concept.
The verdict of the ECJ, Europe’s highest legal authority, has the power to breathe new life into the Super League, or crush what’s left of it. So could this really be the end of the road for its remaining backers?
While the legal wrangling has been long-running, in reality very little has changed since 15 December last year, when advocate general Athanasios Rantos gave his recommendation on the case – usually seen as a good guide as to how the ECJ will rule.
The matter being adjudicated is not on the legitimacy of a Super League per se, but whether bodies such as Uefa or the Premier League can sanction clubs who join rival competitions – as they did – within European law. As such, it is effectively a proxy for the viability of the project.
AG Rantos sided with Uefa, concluding there was nothing stopping clubs from setting up a Super League but that it was fair to deny them benefits of belonging to the old system if they did. In other words, they couldn’t have their cake and eat it.
If the ECJ rubber stamps that position, the Super League’s remaining backers – chiefly, Real Madrid and Barcelona – may have to accept defeat, for now at least.
The Premier League has amended its rules to make it harder for English clubs to break away from Uefa again, introducing automatic £25m fines and 30-point deductions.
Uefa strengthened its position by seeing off the attempted coup of April 2021 and has forged closer ties with most leading teams, agreeing to establish a joint venture with the influential European Club Association to sell the commercial rights to the Champions League.
In that sense, the episode has merely continued the process of the biggest teams squeezing more and more out of the governing body, with the expanded, new-format Champions League set to start next year being the latest example, albeit one agreed before the rebellion.
If the ECJ were to reject the advice of the advocate general, however, it is sure to give the Super League fresh impetus.
A22 Sports Management, a company set up to drive the project on, has stepped up its media activity in recent weeks as the verdict approaches, while there have been murmurs of fresh support from other clubs outside England, such as Atletico Madrid.
Serious questions remain as to how far that support reaches, however. In February A22 floated a revised vision for the Super League, featuring up to 80 teams and incorporating open promotion and relegation from domestic leagues – a key objection to the initial plans.
But if the near-instant abandoning of the Super League’s launch showed anything it is that it will take cast-iron resolve from those in favour to ride out the inevitable backlash, and that looks to be a distant prospect now.
The “dirty dozen” clubs, as Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin dubbed them, have mostly got what they wanted anyway: more money for competing in European competitions, and more say in how they are run.
Meanwhile, Fifa’s 2025 relaunch of the Club World Cup as a 32-team summer jamboree every four years has to some extent stolen the Super League’s thunder.
The Super League discussion will never go away, however. Whatever its failings and naked greed, it has proven too valuable a bargaining chip in clubs’ eternal arm wrestle with Uefa, no matter what anyone says in Luxembourg on Thursday.
