Season 2 of #FootballLeaks is now underway
since more than a week and already a significant number of episodes (all the articles published can be found on the European Investigative Collaborations’ website) covering various aspect of the (lack of)
transnational regulation of football have been released (a short German documentary sums up pretty much the state of play). For
me, as a legal scholar, this new series of revelations is an exciting
opportunity to discuss in much more detail than usual various questions related
to the operation of the transnational private regulations of football imposed by
FIFA and UEFA (as we already did during the initial football leaks with our series of blogs on TPO in 2015/2016). Much of what
has been unveiled was known or suspected by many, but the scope and precision
of the documents published makes a difference. At last, the general public, as
well as academics, can have certainty about the nature of various shady practices
in the world of football. One key characteristic that explains the lack of
information usually available is that football, like many international sports,
is actually governed by private administrations (formally Swiss associations),
which are not subject to the similar obligations in terms of transparency than
public ones (e.g. access to document rules, systematic publication of decisions,
etc.). In other words, it’s a total black box! The football leaks are offering
a rare sneak peak into that box.
Based on what I have read so far
(this blog was written on Friday 9 November), there are three main aspects I
find worthy of discussion:
- The (lack of) enforcement of UEFA’s
Financial Fair Play (FFP) Regulations
- The European Super League project and
EU competition law
- The
(lack of) separation of powers inside FIFA and UEFA More...
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The Headlines
2024 and 2028 Olympic Games to be held in Paris and
Los Angeles respectively
On 13 September 2017,
the Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held in Lima, Peru, elected Paris and Los Angeles as host cities of the 2024 and
2028 Olympic Games respectively. On this occasion, the IOC President Thomas
Bach said that ''this historic double
allocation is a 'win-win-win' situation for the city of Paris, the city of Los
Angeles and the IOC''. The idea of a tripartite agreement whereby two
editions of the Olympic Games would be awarded at the same time was presented
by a working group of the IOC Vice-Presidents established in March 2017. Both
Paris and Los Angeles have pledged to make the Olympic Games cost-efficient, in
particular through the use of a record-breaking number of existing and
temporary facilities. In addition to economic aspects, it will be worthwhile to
keep an eye on how both cities will address human rights and other similar concerns
that may arise in the run-up to the Olympic Games. More...