MADRID.- The promoter of the Super League European Union affirmed this Thursday in the trial being held in Madrid that the UEFA has been “trying to kill” that competition for “three years, considering that they have suffered “unquantifiable harm” as a result.
“UEFA has been trying to kill the Super League for three years,” said Fernando Giménez, lawyer for the company A22, promoter of the Super League, in the Madrid commercial court where the trial is taking place.
Judge Sofía Gil must decide after this trial whether UEFA, with its 2021 rules, abused its dominant position to prevent the creation of the Super League and put obstacles in the way of free competition.
Giménez, together with the representative of the European Superleague society, defended that UEFA used its dominant position in the football market to prevent the creation of this new competition, intended to rival the Champions League.
Arguing the resolution of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) last December, the plaintiffs highlighted that, at the time of the complaint in Madrid, UEFA did not have clear criteria to authorize or not authorize new competitions, unrelated to Own.
“There was nothing, whether it was authorized or not by the free will of UEFA,” said lawyer Fernando Izurzun, representative of the European SuperLeague, for whom there is an obvious conflict of interest in that UEFA, as the owner of a competition, reserve the authorization of others without legislation to protect it.
For the CJEU, UEFA and FIFA “are companies and their regulations are decisions of business associations. The ruling at no time qualifies FIFA and UEFA as organizations responsible for football and sport, it always speaks of associations responsible for sport and also indicates that the dominant position of both is indisputable,” said Giménez.
Harsh argument against UEFA:
For this lawyer, A22 “has seen his entry to a market in which competition must exist closed. He is the victim of anti-competitive conduct and the damages are unquantifiable.”
SuperLeague lawyer Fernando Izurzun insisted that sport cannot be outside the general rules of the European Union (EU), insisting that “the principle of free competition is a constitutional principle of the EU.”
The lawyer recalled that “the announced format (of the Super League) was never a closed project” and that “the intention (of its clubs) has always been to continue competing in the national leagues.”
FOUNTAIN: AFP
