the ruling of the EU Court of Justice “is very far from revolutionizing the football industry”, says a sports economist

The decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) cannot create a precedent for European football, according to Christophe Lepetit, sports economist.

Ready to shake up the world of football, the Super League project supported by the company A22 gained momentum on Thursday, December 21, after the announcement by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which denounced the monopoly of UEFA and FIFA, illegal. Christophe Lepetit, sports economist, clears up some shadows in the picture.

Franceinfo: sport: Can the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) create a precedent for European football and all European competitions?

Christophe Lepetit: No not at all. Contrary to the title of the CJEU press release and the media coverage behind it, we are very far from a ruling that would completely revolutionize the professional football industry. On first reading, I nevertheless saw it as a victory, not necessarily triumphant for the Super League and defeat for UEFA and FIFA. And reading the decision itself, this is almost reversed. The decision is largely in line with the opinion of the Advocate General which was delivered last year, namely to say that UEFA and FIFA are in a dominant position. Thus, A22 or any other organization has every right to launch a competition as long as it fits into the international match calendar. This is a point which is mentioned in the decision, but also that if an organization launches a competition, nothing would prohibit UEFA and/or FIFA from taking decisions to limit the access of clubs and/or players to this competition.

So in your opinion, UEFA, particularly with the new Champions League project next year, should not necessarily be worried about this decision, particularly about seeing the big clubs leave?

I wouldn’t say she should go there whistling. Of course we must take into account what the CJEU said today. But we will have to wait for the opinion of the Spanish court in Madrid, since the case will return to Spain (the Madrid court had initially referred the matter to the CJEU and will have to verify whether the “rules can benefit the different players in football”). But I think that UEFA is not in a situation where there could have been something radical which would have completely called into question the monopoly.

Would small clubs be the losers from this project?

It is very clearly a format which favors the permanence of the big clubs in the top divisions. Because in the scheme they describe, all the champions of the big countries are in the first division. But if tomorrow, Leicester or Montpellier, as we saw more recently, are champions, the club does not qualify for the first division, it potentially qualifies for the third. From there, he has to be able to get into second gear, then first gear. The small clubs will have to go through an impossible obstacle course, namely going from the third European division to the first, something which will never happen.

The Super League promises free football, is this a viable model?

This distribution scheme through a Unify platform (platform designated by A22 to broadcast the matches), accessible for free by all fans around the world, is a form of hoax. In the very short term, you can put all your matches on a free platform, but it is very likely, even almost certain, that very quickly, you will develop a freemium model. One part is free, the other is subscription-based to monetize the audience you will have created by being free initially. It is a promise of free in the very short term which will gradually transform into semi-free, or even into a model which will be extremely profitable in the longer term. I think there is a form of lying in any case. And this is all the more so because, at the same time, they guarantee very significant solidarity payments, potentially higher than what UEFA does.

How are the clubs positioned?

The clubs instead seem to be massively rejecting the Super League again. Now, if A22 comes in with a bridge of gold, which will require one or more huge partnerships with guaranteed money, the question could arise. Today, European club competitions in 2023/2024 represent 3.5 billion euros in gross revenue and a highly established product. It won’t be easy for A22 unless it has massive backing like JP Morgan in 2021 or another investment fund from a partner willing to put down a huge guaranteed minimum.