Without getting off his horse, Aleksander Čeferin challenged: “They will start a fantastic Super League with two teams.” UEFA just experienced the biggest defeat in its almost seventy-year history, but the Slovenian continued like Napoleon on the Russian front, haughtily, with a view of the horizon. Down, thousands of our dead.

The Court of the European Union stuck a hook in his liver and sent him to the canvas. On Thursday, it was found that “FIFA and UEFA regulations which make any project for a new club football competition, such as the Super League, subject to prior approval and which prohibit clubs and players from participating in it, under threat of fines, are illegal.” and which “violate the law of the Union”. He also ruled that they were “an abuse of a dominant position”. In Creole: the end of the monopoly, they no longer have the exclusive right to play football. At least in 27 countries of the bloc. And we know that whatever happens first in Europe comes later mirror to the world.

Wild: Spain 12 – Malta 1

This is what happened with the Bosman Law, also emanating from the Luxembourg court. In principle it was for members of the European Union, but seeing the thousands of lawsuits it could trigger, FIFA soon expanded it universally. Because it was fair. The current penalty leaves a real fact: now the clubs will have a freedom that they didn’t have before. They will be heard. The Superliga may not progress and return to the traditional regime, but nothing will be the same again, the clubs have won the fight.

A bomb in world football

With this, the European Union opened the door for the birth of the Superliga, that announced parallel supertournament proposed by the company A22 Sports Management led by the German Bernd Reichart, graduate student Marketing athlete and television business expert. What will happen from now on…? Clubs and players who want to participate in the said Super League, which would share much more money than the Champions League or the Europa League, will be able to do so freely, without threats from FIFA or UEFA.

Champions: who is aiming for the title…?

“There won’t be a Super League in fifteen years,” roared Javier Tebas, president of the Spanish league and furious ally of the traditional power. It will be seen. But Super League or not, the verdict is a knockout blow to leadership arrogance, of that very special kind. The whole pyramidal structure of football has rocked and cracked. As soon as the CJEU judgment was announced, there were voices for and against. Gianni Infantino was more cautious than Čeferin: “With great respect for the European Court of Justice, today’s ruling does not really change anything.” Historically, we have organized the best competitions in the world and it will be the same in the future…” He did not say “there will be no Superliga”, but that FIFA will do it better. Like this, good.

The World Championship of Ultra-Millionaires

But it is changing. The company can organize international tournaments with clubs affiliated to UEFA and FIFA without seeking their permission. And he will. It cannot occur to anyone that an initiative promoted by JP Morgan, the biggest bank in the world, capable of confronting UEFA, taking it to the Luxembourg courts – and winning it – does not have enough capacity to organize the tournament. Or that he didn’t predict that he would win. It will certainly not be finished next year, but maybe it will be completed by 2025. And it has two of the strongest brands in world football: Barcelona and Real Madrid. Napoli have already announced that they want to enter. “I completely agree with Florentino Pérez,” said Aurelio de Laurentiis, the owner of the Maradonian club. Those who do not qualify for the Champions League will not remain under observation, it is possible that they will apply for the Super League, for which they would receive a million limit.

Whenever clubs or players pushed, UEFA and FIFA relented. Good examples are the Bosman Law from 1995 and the G14 from 2000. That group, which was created as a rebellion with 14 clubs, and today the ECA (European Club Association) gathers 220 institutions. It was created because the national teams took their best footballers to world championships or continental championships without consulting the employer. “We pay the players wages for twelve months, but others take our employees and use them to make money, and we get nothing in return,” complained Umberto Gandini, Milan’s sporting director. As it always happens, at the start they earned the rejection of Joseph Blatter, the head of the football matrix at the time. However, FIFA had no choice but to compensate the clubs for part of the million profit.

A good number of European clubs are private and their owners are eager to increase their income. She won’t marry UEFA for love. Four teams from Spain, England, Italy and Germany usually enter the group stage of the champions. And two or three from France, Portugal, Holland. Some from Ukraine, Scotland, Denmark. There are many countries where big and popular clubs are usually not represented: Turkey (Fenerbahce, Galatasaray, Besiktas), Belgium (Anderlecht), Greece (Olympiakos), Sweden (Malmöe), Romania (Steaua), Hungary (Ferencvaros), Poland (Legia ) Warsaw), Austria (Vienna Rapid) and many others. A new door opens for them: entering the Super League. And without the risk of exclusion. As some critics point out, the Superliga will not differ much from the Champions League, it is more the same. But UEFA will have to share the work.

There is a mountain of all kinds of questions. Will Superliga and Champions League overlap…? Which will the neutral public choose…? Which title will have more value…? What charm will the future competition have without English teams…? Will this novelty spread to other continents…? Maybe yes, although it may take a few years. From now on, nothing should be ruled out. We wonder what would happen if an investment group thought of creating a parallel league in one of the South American countries. For example, in Colombia, which has so many important clubs. And it offers them more money to participate. Can Dimayor stop it…? Wouldn’t there also be a monopoly in that case…? Is there any law that can prevent this…? Everything that is not expressly forbidden is allowed. What if Paco Casal decides to hold a tournament in Uruguay apart from the current tasteless championship and takes Peñarol and Nacional…?

We are not sure about the benefit of the Super League (if it happens). It can happen like in boxing that atomized and lost. Originally there was an entity, the World Boxing Association (WBA), then the World Boxing Council (WBC), the International Federation (IBF), the World Boxing Organization (WBO), the World Professional Boxing Federation (WPBF), the International Boxing Organization and the International Boxing Organization (IWBO) ). Disaster. I hope the same thing doesn’t happen with the ball.

But football belongs to everyone, not to the all-powerful Čeferin, Infantino, etc. That is the great moral of the Court’s ruling. João Havelange, the most prominent and respected president that FIFA has ever had, once said: “Everything that includes the word football belongs to FIFA.” No more. (OR)