The ruling on the Super League that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will make public today may overturn European football. Proponents of the new competition hope the top court will rule that UEFA and FIFA have a monopoly on continental football and be allowed to create the competition that would give all the power to the clubs. The two who yearn for this decision the most are Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. The two clubs have stayed together until the end in this fight against all, with the aim of recovering the economic pre-eminence of the past in front of the so-called State clubs.
In the event that the Spanish clubs emerge victorious, the sentence would mean something as disruptive as the Bosman law of 1995, by which players who belonged to the European Union ceased to have the status of foreigners in the countries that formed it. This rule opened up borders and gave a huge boost to the king sport in Europe.
It is still early to gauge the consequences of the possible creation of the Superliga, but in case the TJUE gives the go-ahead or is not exhaustive in the ban, the twelve clubs that declared themselves founders and signed the commitment would be forced to participate if they don’t want Sixth Street, the American investment fund that acts as a lender to the project, to demand millions of dollars from them.
The blow to the national leagues, such as the Spanish one, would be very hard, as they would have to adapt to the calendars of a competition they do not control in order to continue to have the best teams. UEFA, on which all official European football competitions currently depend, would be the big loser in this new way of understanding football, as it would only rule over national team football.
The new Superliga would consist of 20 teams; the twelve founders, namely Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, ??Atlético de Madrid, Inter Milan, Milan and Juventus, as well as eight other teams. But what was originally supposed to be a closed competition, it is now clear that it will be governed by sporting merits and there are no plans to have permanent members.
The Superliga ultimately seeks the financial stability of the clubs, which is why they are guaranteed a minimum of 14 European matches per season. More matches, more income. On this, the solidarity payments will be higher and are expected to exceed 10,000 million euros. In addition, the founders would receive, as a whole, a one-time payment of 3.5 billion euros. With this, the message for the State clubs is clear, since the expenditure should be based on the resources that the clubs are able to generate, and not on capital injections from third parties that distort the competition.
