With Advocate General Athanasios Rantos ruling that UEFA and FIFA have the right to approve new competitions, Football Italia looks at reactions from the football world, what happens next and what this means for Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Rantos said on Thursday that Super League organisers are free to set up a new independent competition although they “cannot in parallel with the creation of such a competition, continue to participate in the football competitions organised by FIFA and UEFA without the prior authorization of those federations.”
Reactions
UEFA said that they “warmly welcome today’s unequivocal Opinion recommending a ruling of the CJEU in support of our central mission to govern European football, protect the pyramid and develop the game across Europe.”
ECA published an official statement saying that “The Opinion published today by Advocate General Rantos reinforces ECA’s long-standing opposition to the European Super League and any breakaway project.
“ECA now awaits the final ruling by the Court and in the meantime will continue to pursue the best interests of all of our members – the clubs who make European club football the best in the world.”
A22 Sports, the company behind the Super League, reported Rantos’ ruling which also highlights that ‘Clubs and players must be able to know in advance conditions to be able to participate in third-party events. Sanctions must also be sufficiently clear, predictable and proportionate to limit any risk of arbitrary application.’
What happens now?
It is important to highlight that this is not a definitive ruling and that the final decision from the European Court Of Justice is expected in Spring 2023. However, as highlighted by The Times, the opinion ‘is followed by the judges in 90 per cent or more of cases.’
Is this the end of the Super League?
Perhaps not the end yet, but surely a huge blow for Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid, the only three clubs that are still formally involved in the breakaway competition launched in April 2021 by 12 elite clubs and collapsed within 48 hours following the withdraw from English clubs, Inter, Milan and Atletico Madrid.
Even if the ECJ won’t follow Rantos’ unequivocal Opinion in a few months, Super League clubs would need to take separate action in the UK to let Premier League clubs in as the ECJ no longer applies in Britain since Brexit.
Will Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid be sanctioned?
It’s probably too early to know, even if sanctions for clubs that are still involved in the competition are possible since this past April when a judge in the Madrid court lifted the injunction imposed on UEFA.
Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona are still not part of ECA. However, the body representing nearly 250 of Europe’s top football clubs, said earlier this month that they are ‘open’ to engaging with the new Juventus board after Andrea Agnelli’s resignation.
There are reports that ECA’s Chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who replaced Agnelli in April 2021, after the Super League was launched, has already opened talks with the Old Lady’s new President Gianluca Ferrero who will be in charge from January 18, 2023, along with the club’s new board of directors.