bBefore we talk about the rulings that the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg placed under the sports associations' Christmas tree on Thursday, we should remember the Euroleague. Not to the Europa League, not to the Europa Conference League. It's not about football, it's about basketball.
In the sport in which Germany is the world champion, professional clubs created the Euroleague more than 20 years ago, outside of the traditional umbrella organization structure, the most attractive basketball competition outside of North America. One could have guessed that international associations under the umbrella of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) cannot simply use their monopoly to pull the rug out from under every good or at least commercially profitable idea from contentious sports marketers.
If you now want to bring the cases Super League against FIFA and UEFA and the International Skating Association ISU against the EU Commission, in which the judgments were announced on Thursday, to a common denominator, then it is this: sports associations such as the European Football Union and the As marketers of their competitions, international football associations are subject to European competition law, just like all other sports associations that operate in a market economy.
It is simply not enough to block possible competitors with references to tradition and the – rightly or wrongly – claimed cultivation of the non-pecuniary values of sport. In other words, something like what the commercially very successful IOC President Thomas Bach regularly did during lobbying appearances in Brussels under the heading “Concern for the European sports model”. At least not if the monopolist cannot cite “transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate” rules according to which it operates. The rulings from Luxembourg are actually progress, and not a small one.
The regulations are subject to competition law
Especially since looking at the behavior and business acumen of the top officials among the officials in the international football associations, for example, is really not suitable for creating trust that the ethos of fair play is always and always followed in all areas of business. When it comes to making money with sport, professional sport, competition must be possible. This is also why it is called competition law, not competition prevention law.
This says absolutely nothing about how and by whom the most attractive club competitions in Europe's most commercially successful sport will be organized in the future. A Super League cannot be created from a few ideas alone, not even from a few good ones. This requires participants: the clubs. Your position vis-à-vis the associations is stronger than ever.
But the fact that the judges in Luxembourg are looking far beyond football is shown by the verdict that sent the ISU, the ice skating association, home. The same applies here: the regulations are subject to competition law. In addition, they state: The clauses that force athletes to be subject to the jurisdiction of the CAS sports arbitration court based in Switzerland, outside the EU, do not comply with European law.
The general reference to the “characteristics of sport” is not enough to justify it; the athletes have a right to examine the question of whether the associations are violating EU law. This is particularly true since the rules are imposed on one side, the athletes, by the other, the associations. The practical consequences in this regard are not yet foreseeable. But the verdict is clear and clear. It was overdue.
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