By Marshall Mainer
Last month, soccer’s global governing body issued a yellow card warning to any potential breakaway leagues and clubs.
On January 21, 2021, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), along with the six continental confederations, released a joint statement that said any continental super league that forms would not be recognized by FIFA or the respective confederations. The official statement goes on to state that any athletes participating in an unsanctioned club competition would be deemed ineligible to participate in any competitions organized or recognized by FIFA or the confederations; an assertion with strong implications for the proposed, and heavily rumored, European ‘Super League’ moving forward. If this statement is enforced, the policy may have an immense impact on the future of soccer globally and could be challenged by breakaway clubs or leagues legally.
A European ‘Super League’ has been rumored for a number of years now, with several proposals having been placed on the discussion table since 2009. A group of European newspapers uncovered secret talks between some of Europe’s biggest clubs as they discussed the possibility of forming a breakaway ‘Super League.’ Indeed, each of the continental confederations already feature competitions which pit the domestic league champions and other top teams from across Europe against each other throughout the season, most notably the Union of European Football Associations’ (UEFA) Champions League.
The main problem facing any clubs trying to create a ‘Super League’ moving forward is that it would be an unrecognized competition, so the participating athletes would potentially be unable to participate in competitions such as the FIFA World Cup, or any of the confederations’ different forms of the Champions League. It is entirely possible that the clubs break away and live with the consequences, but they may also do so with the intent to sue FIFA and the confederations in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) so that they will be recognized or at least have their players allowed to participate in FIFA and confederation-recognized competitions.
Two similar cases brought before CAS address cases in which licensing bodies were granted discretionary powers to award licenses per the rules enacted by the national federation. In both FC Koper v. Football Association of Slovenia (CAS 2017/A/5205) and FK Željezničar v. Football Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CAS 2019/A/6334), the appealing club was denied a license to participate, having both failed to properly follow the appropriate national laws governing licenses. What should concern the super clubs interested in joining the ‘Super League’ is that the CAS Panel in FC Koper explicitly affirmed that licensing bodies have broad discretion in awarding clubs their licenses. A CAS Panel would only be able to judge whether or not the licensing organization wielded its discretion reasonably, so there is a strong possibility that CAS would side with FIFA, its confederations, and the various national federations in licensing disputes. The ‘Super League’ clubs could make the argument that they satisfy all of the criteria required to obtain a license to participate in domestic and continental competitions, but only if ‘Super League’ clubs are not explicitly barred from obtaining licenses. In FK Željezničar, the club failed to abide by the rules set forth by Bosnia and Herzegovina and UEFA, leading to their request for a license being denied, reinforcing the power that governing bodies have to create those rules and administer them. UEFA’s own Regulations on Club Licensing for Participation in UEFA Club Competitions already go into great detail about the process clubs have to go through in order to obtain a license through UEFA, with the other confederations having similar processes. Assuming appropriate vocabulary is included in those regulations in the future outlining what competitions are or are not recognized by UEFA, that would also represent a tall mountain for ‘Super League’ clubs to overcome if making their case based on licensing laws.
The CAS case of Phnom Penh Crown Football Club v. Asian Football Confederation (CAS 2016/A/4642), poses an additional interesting question about the rights of the athletes participating in the ‘Super League.’ As a part of the original investigation into the events that transpired at Phnom Penh, seven players were allowed to end their contracts with the club and sign elsewhere before the start of the following season due to what happened. The Football Federation of Cambodia made the initial ruling that the players could leave, with their decision affirmed by the Asian confederation. This flags the question of whether players would have the option or the ability to freely seek transfers to clubs outside of the ‘Super League’ when it initially starts, so as to participate in the FIFA World Cup or other recognized competitions.
A European ‘Super League’ would undoubtedly face a litany of legal hurdles in the process of not only getting off the ground, but also in sustaining itself in the early years. A European ‘Super League’ may also seek to explore European competition laws for relief. Similar to American anti-trust laws, the European competition laws aim to prevent cartels and monopolies in the European Union. If they can argue that UEFA and FIFA have created an unfair monopoly in the eyes of European competition laws, then they may be able to move forward with their plans. In the event that a European ‘Super League’ does go ahead and form, against the wishes of FIFA and the continental confederations, there will be plenty of upheaval in world soccer.
The transfer of players from FIFA sanctioned competitions into the ‘Super League’ or vice versa would have to be thought out and agreed upon by both sides. It is possible that FIFA would ban the movement of players in and out of the league in an effort to freeze them out of the rest of the world’s talent, but that is not something that seems feasible, especially in court. The proposed league would also be a ‘closed league,’ analogous to American sports leagues such as Major League Soccer, or the National Football League. There would be no promotion or relegation involved in this new league, something that would be financially beneficial to the super clubs but stands to stymie the growth of domestic leagues, and their clubs, across the continent.
The European ‘Super League,’ long rumored to be in the works, may already be on its last legs. Several days after FIFA released their statement, the Chairman of the European Club Association, Andrea Agnelli, issued a statement that called for UEFA Champions League reforms and better Financial Fair Play laws, as opposed to the creation of a breakaway ‘Super League’. FIFPro, the FIFA players’ union, has not issued their own statement as of yet, but the fans have certainly spoken. A group called Football Supporters Europe has condemned the proposed ‘Super League’ as being a scheme of the bigger clubs to keep all of the money for themselves, and a move that flies in the face of soccer’s rich tradition worldwide.
Marshall Mainer is a doctoral student at Florida State University, with an interest in the governance and administration of global soccer and intercollegiate athletics.
