THE GAME AT RISK: ANALYZING THE CJEU's JUDGMENT IN THE “ESLC” CASE

Abstract

The paper aims to elaborate the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) of

December 2023 in the preliminary ruling procedure concerning the case brought by several football clubs

against the FIFA and UEFA football organizations. Namely, several European football clubs, contrary to

the statutes of FIFA and UEFA, which do not allow the creation of additional competitions beyond those

already organized by these two organizations, have started the creation of a so-called Super League which

will be composed of the best European football clubs. Naturally, this is done for more money, for television

rights, for buying and selling players, and less for the actual football and the fan’s enjoyment of the best

secondary thing in the world. The creation of the Super League caused threats by UEFA and FIFA, not only

to the clubs that want to be part of this project, but also to the players who are part of these clubs. For this

purpose, the teams that want to be part of the Super League initiated a procedure before the CJEU against

UEFA and FIFA for abuse of their dominant position in the market, violation of the right to free movement

of services, violation of competition rules, etc. In addition, the paper elaborates the Judgment of the

Commercial Court in Madrid from April 2024 after the return of the case to the national court by the CJEU.

In the conclusion, the authors give their opinion on how such a project will affect the football game, the

relationship of the clubs with FIFA and UEFA, but also how it will affect the most important part, which is

the fans.