In the spring of 2021, as the UEFA Champions League approached three decades of existence, . Promoted by Florentino Pérez, president, as well as Andrea Agnelli and Joel Glazer, vice presidents, the Super League was born with the support of its 12 founding partners: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham, Juventus, Milan and Inter Milan. A little more than four years later, the Champions League is still ongoing as the top continental competition – in which all the aforementioned clubs participate – and the Super League, unprecedented to date, has not only lost strength in the offices: Real Madrid.
Faced with such a scenario, the club chaired by Florentino Pérez and A22 Sports Management, the promoter that allied itself with the Super League project in 2022, so that Aleksander Ceferin, president of the body that governs European football, finally agreed to negotiate the redesign of the Champions League.
Until that moment, the meetings between both parties had taken place over time without moving in any direction. So much so that sources familiar with the conversations felt that UEFA’s objective was precisely that, to maintain empty matches to let time pass without significant progress. “There is no other option,” said sources then assured about the imminent multimillion-dollar demands from Real Madrid and A22. “It is in UEFA’s hands to be able to avoid it, but it can only be through serious negotiations.”
Florentino Pérez himself confirmed this Sunday at the Real Madrid assembly that the white club had already started the bureaucratic procedures to undertake its demand. “We have not come this far to frame judicial rulings, but to put them into practice,” he proclaimed to his partners, to whom he assured that he had received private support from several clubs to relaunch the Super League. “It is not normal that in the 21st century, watching football on television is increasingly expensive,” he added, in defense of the accessible and free broadcast that took place on Dazn during the Club World Cup last summer. “An increasingly expensive product [en referencia al modelo implementado por la UEFA en la Champions] “It only alienates football fans,” he said.
For its part, A22 not only claims “damages”, but has also submitted an official letter to UEFA. In the letter, the company led by the German Bernd Reichart urges Alexander Ceferin to comply with the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which in December 2023 determined that both UEFA and FIFA exercised an abuse of power to restrict the launch of the Super League, positioning themselves as “arbiters” of the European football industry and violating the Competition Law of the European Union. Last June, in addition, the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) had already opened an investigation into UEFA for its maneuvers to hinder the launch of the Super League.
“Despite the final rulings of three European judicial bodies—including the CJEU and the Provincial Court in Spain—UEFA maintains regulations and practices in force that directly contravene these judicial decisions,” A22 warned in a statement on Monday. “By challenging these rulings, the only appropriate course at this time is to demand compensation for the damages suffered, [de modo que] “UEFA now faces a scenario of significant claims from both the clubs and A22.”
It should be noted, however, that the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union to which the Super League clings specified in 2023 that such a sports project, called Unify League from 2024, “does not necessarily have to be approved” as long as it is intended to be implemented in the UEFA ecosystem, that is, in the current scheme of European football.
