EU backs UEFA opposition to European football ‘super league’

The European Commission on Thursday backed UEFA as the European football federation launched a bid to block the creation of a continental “super league.”

“There is no scope for the few to distort the universal and diverse nature of European football,” said Margaritis Schinas, European Commission vice president. “The European way of life is not compatible with European football being reserved for the rich and the powerful.”

He spoke as the game’s governing bodies were aiming to stop Europe’s elite clubs from setting up a pan-continental league.

They are floating bans on potential super league players from taking part in the World Cup and other major tournaments, according to a letter published Thursday by FIFA — world football’s governing body — and signed by global football chiefs. 

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, who signed the letter, has met in recent months with Schinas and other senior EU policymakers on a range of subjects from vaccines to climate action. The “need to safeguard solidarity in European sport” was also discussed, according to people familiar with the meetings.

Čeferin also talked about the “importance of protecting the fundamental aspects of the European model of sport” with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, during a wide-ranging videoconference in December, according to the UEFA website. 

Critics of the super league — which would dispense with promotion and relegation — say it would undermine the trickle-down economics of football, particularly in less-wealthy countries where cash from elite competitions flows down to support grassroots sport.

“Any club or player involved in such a competition would as a consequence not be allowed to participate in any competition organised by FIFA or their respective confederation,” said the FIFA letter, which was endorsed by football governing bodies from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North America and South America.

Such a ban would include football’s top competitions, including the World Cup, European Championships, Copa America and Europe’s Champions League. 

“We must protect our European sports model, which relies on a balance between club and national competitions, and is meant to ensure the development of the game in an open and non-discriminatory way,” said Schinas.

It is unclear whether such a ban would be legally enforceable. The exclusion of top players would certainly dilute the quality of the World Cup — and could theoretically lead to more breakaway international competitions. 

According to a proposal seen by the Times, founder members of the super league would be offered up to €350 million each to join the competition. 

Andrea Agnelli, chairman of Italian giant Juventus and boss of the European Clubs Association, is one of the principal cheerleaders for a breakaway league. He has pitched the competition as a “progressive” step for football. 

“If we are not progressive, we are simply protecting a system that is no longer there, a system that is made of domestic games that will have little interest for our kids,” he said in 2019. 

Criticism of the super league plan has also come from the European Parliament.

“I find the speculation on a closed super league of elite clubs in European football very alarming. I welcome and support UEFA’s strong position against this,” said MEP Tomasz Frankowski, co-chair of the Parliament’s sports group and a former professional footballer. “Sport is a right for everyone, not just an elite group. We must protect and promote the European sports model.” 

During his talks with senior EU officials, ÄŒeferin also met Parliament President David Sassoli in December.

Experts point to a clash between the pyramid structure of the game around Europe and the economic ambitions of behemoth clubs.   

“The promotion-and-relegation system is one factor that makes football competition attractive to fans, and abolishing it would represent a significant loss,” said Stefan Szymanski, an economist and author of the book “Soccernomics.”

“But promotion and relegation undermines the economic profitability of the big clubs — so they have a financial incentive to abolish it.”