The case that has been brought before the European Court of Justice this week, could mean the end of the European Cups in football as we know them. It can also mean the end of national team football as it is today. All for the biggest and richest football clubs to earn even more. But the consequences can be even more extensive than that. Anyone who thought the hated plans for a closed European super league in football were dead, therefore risks being seriously disappointed. MORE OF THIS? Spain’s giants Barcelona and Real Madrid are among those who are still fighting for the big ones to get bigger Photo: LLUIS GENE / AFP The plans and ambitions thus live on to the highest degree. Three of the original 12 founding clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, are still active in their intentions to carry out plans for the lucrative tournament. Lucrative and closed. But UEFA stops them. Mostly by threatening sanctions against clubs or players who should be tempted to join the super league plans. The remaining super league clubs have therefore taken their case against UEFA to court, first in Spain, which referred it to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, where the referees have heard the parties’ arguments through a two-day hearing. A monopoly for the good of the community? In short, the case is about how far UEFA’s monopoly can be defended against EU competition law. The Super League thinks they are going too far when they want to deny clubs that take part in their project to participate in their respective national leagues at the same time. UEFA believes they defend the interests of the community and sport, and therefore deserve an exemption from the competition rules. 27 nations, including Norway, agree with UEFA. Our best alternative – after all Having said that, no one needs to have illusions that the European Football Association, UEFA, only acts on the basis of noble and non-profit intentions. UEFA is a player that is in control of virtually every link of an increasingly lucrative business chain. But UEFA and FIFA are still the best option we have. And then it is absolutely crucial that they win this case, which was originally brought before Spanish courts. But this case is so big and so important and so far-reaching that the Spanish court would have advice from the European Court of Justice. This is the starting point for the court hearings that have taken place this week in Luxembourg. So important is the case that as many as 27 countries ended up showing their support through presence in a packed courtroom in front of 15 judges. Including Norway. Finally. Low Norwegian interest For a case that can change the entire foundation of how we organize sports also in Norway, it took a long time to capture the interest of our authorities. An appeal from UEFA in the autumn of 2021 for written support from Norway did not elicit a response from any of the affected ministries. Nor has the Norwegian Sports Confederation expressed any involvement in the extremely important matter of principle for sport. When the Norwegian Football Association in June issued a mixture of a reminder and an urgent admonition that the Norwegian authorities had to get involved, just weeks before the case was to be processed, the response was equally lukewarm. Joint holiday above all CONCERNED: – The football map will definitely change radically, and not for the positive, says football president Lise Klaveness about the super league’s plans Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB In a country where our entire sports model is built on the principles that are challenged in the courtroom in Luxembourg, however, our authorities would not set aside resources for a Norwegian contribution to help defend these. One of the reasons is something as important as the joint holiday. In a correspondence news has gained insight between several relevant ministries, it is explicitly pointed out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which normally treats matter like this, as a problem that the case comes in the middle of the Norwegian holiday. This is an excerpt from the email sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 16 June. Photo: Facsimile Either one did not understand the significance of the case, or one would not understand. Because it’s a joint holiday. After a meeting with Minister of Culture and Gender Equality Anette Trettebergstuen at the end of June, football president Lise Klaveness took the rare step of expressing her frustration in public. The result was that the government turned around and in fact let a joint holiday be a joint holiday, commendable enough. Two lawyers from the Government Advocate represented Norway with speeches in an intense hearing in Luxembourg. TURNED: After a proposal from the NFF president, Minister of Culture Anette Trettebergstuen still chose to send envoys to the hearing Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB In this context, this presence is more than symbolic politics. The issue is which monopoly schemes can be defended in the good name of the community. In Norway, we know much of the same argument from the discussion around the gaming monopoly. Norsk Tipping gets to have its protected position because they finance our entire sports and cultural community. Pyramids for fall The outcome of the case may therefore be decisive for the entire future of European sport. Nothing less. Not just for football. For everything that is called the European sports model is in danger if a practically closed construction such as the Super League is allowed. European sport is, by and large, built as a kind of solidarity pyramid, which will cause resources to be propagated down the system, all the way down to the much-discussed grassroots. That is, all the way to the smallest associations and to all ages and levels. At the same time, the form of competition in all sports is such that everyone should have the opportunity to climb as far as possible upwards. In other words, the smallest clubs or athletes must have the opportunity to win the biggest and most rewarding tournaments. A model cartel All this disappears in reality with a super league. There, the same resources will be distributed between the big ones – and only them. Without danger of disappearing from the lucrative company. Which also violates all our principles of open and fair competition. ‘A model cartel’, was the term UEFA’s lawyer used in the courtroom in Luxembourg. Those who just gather even more power around those who are already powerful. What the super league clubs, also called the European Super League, or ESL, want to determine is whether the European Football Association, UEFA, exploits its monopoly position in violation of EU competition rules. If they are upheld, they will be free to resume their plans. Without UEFA being able to sanction clubs that choose to participate. The latter was, together with a huge uproar among fans in particular England, one of the reasons why the whole project so far stalled after only 48 hours in March 2021. In the money bag and sack The Super League will have the whole money bag and sack in addition. The risk of being banned by the national leagues will also no longer be an option. As mentioned, UEFA is not a charity, and is guaranteed to be in the gray zone for abusing its monopoly position in several areas. Nevertheless, they and FIFA are currently the guarantor of maintaining a system that, after all, adds more than NOK 2 billion annually to all those who are not part of what can become a super league company. What we can call a kind of equalization fund. The reward UEFA receives from the national leagues is that they take a break when there are international matches or European Cups. It’s a top heavy ecosystem – but it works. The Super League will change all that. 32 clubs in today’s Champions League become 18 or 20 – and fewer to share the money on. You also do not need to bring other teams than the ones that are most attractive. Which means that no Norwegian club will ever be able to dream of qualifying for football’s most attractive company, whether they manage to beat Klaksvik from the Faroe Islands or not. In addition, the biggest clubs will get an extra large part of the pot. Barcelona and Real Madrid, for example, would be guaranteed around NOK 7 billion over the next 20 years just by virtue of their name. Mismanaged clubs must, at the forefront, be saved on behalf of the community. End of the national teams? Another obvious concern for UEFA is that national team football as we know it may soon be history. The Super League will not be bound to take a break when Uefa wants to have so-called international dates, when international matches are to be played. Nor will they have any desire to submit players to international matches in which they have no financial interest – and which in practice only pose a risk of damaging the billion-dollar value of the star players. This is what is at stake, in a case that could be the most important in the European Court of Justice since the Bosman ruling in 1995. A decision on the Super League is expected in 2023. Hopefully well before the joint holiday.
ttn-69
The battle for the future of football – before and after the joint holiday – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule
