Bernd Reichart asked about when the Super League will start

The European Court of Justice rule that UEFA and FIFA both acted “unlawfully” by blocking the European Super League tournament when it initially launched in 2021 is proving to be an incredibly complicated legal situation.

According to the ruling, any company may freely create tournaments and this supports the Super League idea, which quickly announced that their new formula for football would consist of 64 clubs in 14 groups across 3 divisions.

“We will bring out the tournament as soon as possible,” said Bernd Reichart, the CEO of A22, backer of the Super League, in statements to AS a few hours after the event took place. The news for now is that the immediate establishment of the Super League seems complicated. “I can’t give you a start date right now”, he added.

“We have to convince the clubs, convince their fans, apply our proposal to a consensus that will be able to bring the best tournament in the world”.

Clubs must be convinced to join the Super League

To begin with, the clubs must be convinced to join the project and not all of them publicly say they are in favour of it. Manchester United were the first of the English clubs to take a stand against it, followed by the rest of the Premier League teams, as well as Bayern and PSG, the two giants of Germany and France. The Spanish first division, led by Atlético, joined in with the common slogan of the opponents of the Super League: “Earn it on the field”.

In addition to this, the current regulations - despite the ruling against it - are still in force and prevent the existence of another parallel competition until they are altered. The Super League case is still active in court and going through its full process. In fact, the ECJ transferred the case back to the 17th Commercial Court of Madrid for a ruling. It is not known how long this may take and how much longer the litigation will last.

In order to open the scope for change, the current regulation must first be changed. “After the ruling, the ECJ recognises UEFA as the organiser of the pyramid that football should have. The situation is that no project right now is authorised to go ahead, the rest is false,” Ceferin explained.

The ruling obliges UEFA to change its statutes

UEFA and FIFA both complied with the decision and, in the case of the European confederation, specified that there is a “historical deficit” in terms of banning other competitions. At a legal level, the ruling obliges UEFA to change its statutes and to recognise that others can also propose and establish tournaments: something that UEFA had already started to work on.

If UEFA modifies its statutes, as required by the ruling, it is possible that it will then be in a position to be considered the guarantor of European football. The lawyer and sports law specialist Toni Roca explained the situation to AS: “With the current rules it is clear that there is an abuse of power, because what is happening is contrary to that rule; but if there were other more transparent rules, perhaps they would be entitled to a ban”.

Is there any hope for UEFA and FIFA?

An added problem for the current scenario to change completely overnight is that of television rights. UEFA has already sold the rights for the new Champions League from 2024 onwards in several countries, which is passed on to the clubs via the ECA, renouncing contracts that have already been signed is often difficult as well as costly.

As for the Super League TV rights, the competition plan to stream the tournament on Unify, a new platform designed by the league: “it’s something we’ve been working on very intensely for months”, said Reichart, “but I can’t say when it will be ready.”

Meanwhile, the lynchpin of UEFA and FIFA’s defence lies in a sentence of the ruling to which they cling tightly. “However, a competition such as the Super League project should not necessarily be authorised. Having been asked questions of a general nature about FIFA and UEFA rules, the Court of Justice does not rule, in its judgment, on this specific project.”

The Super League is stronger and UEFA weaker than yesterday, but the battle is not over. The judicial process is expected to be long, with nuances in both directions, until a solution is found. European football is entering a new era, an unknown place on the map. The continent is opening up to regulatory changes that seemed impossible until now.