Join us for a round table co-organized by GLawNet
and the Asser Institute at the Campus Brussels of the Maastricht University (Avenue de Tervueren 153, 1150 Brussels) just one day after the publication of the Opinion of
Advocate General Rantos in the European Super League (ESL) case. The discussion between academics and stakeholders will focus on the role played by the
EU, as well as the role it
ought to play, in determining
the way football is organised and governed.
In 2021, the
announcement of the creation of a breakaway European Super League
(ESL), as well as the drama of its early demise, stunned the world.
Since then, the company behind the ESL and UEFA (as well as FIFA) are
locked into a legal battle that will soon come to an end at the Court of
Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Following the preliminary
questions raised by a Spanish court, the CJEU will weigh in on whether
UEFA and FIFA breached EU competition law with their attempts to thwart
the emergence of the ESL. It will not be the first time that the
governing bodies of football, both Swiss associations, face scrutiny
before the EU courts - many will remember the 1995 Bosman ruling.
However, this time around various stakeholders and observers are calling
for the EU to not only referee this particular dispute, but to as well
start playing a stronger governance role by regulating European
football.
Programme:
15:00 – 15:05 Opening: Mariolina Eliantonio (Maastricht University)
15:05 – 16:30 - Roundtable: Governing European Football: What role for the European Union?
Moderator: Carlo Colombo (Maastricht University)
16:30 Reception
This is an In-Person event only and will take place at the Campus Brussels of the Maastricht University (Avenue de Tervueren 153, 1150 Brussels). If you wish to attend, please register HERE.
Supported by 
Editor’s note: Stephen Weatherill is the Jacques Delors
Professor of European Law at Oxford University. He also serves as Deputy
Director for European Law in the Institute of European and Comparative
Law, and is a Fellow of Somerville College. This blog appeared first on
eulawanalysis.blogspot.com and is reproduced here with the agreement of
the author.
The crumbling of the ‘SuperLeague’ is a source of joy to many football
fans, but the very fact that such an idea could be advanced reveals
something troublingly weak about the internal governance of football in
Europe – UEFA’s most of all – and about the inadequacies of legal
regulation practised by the EU and/ or by states. This note explains why
a SuperLeague is difficult to stop under the current pattern of legal
regulation and why accordingly reform is required in order to defend the
European model of sport with more muscularity. More...
On Wednesday 20 January 2021 from 16.00-17.30 CET, the Asser International Sports Law Centre, in collaboration with Dr Marjolaine Viret, is organising a Zoom In webinar
on the recent judgment of the General Court in the case International
Skating Union (ISU) v European Commission, delivered on 16 December
2016. The Court ruled on an appeal against the first-ever antitrust
prohibition decision on sporting rules adopted by the European
Commission. More specifically, the case concerned the ISU’s eligibility
rules, which were prohibiting speed skaters from competing in
non-recognised events and threatened them with lifelong bans if they did
(for more details on the origin of the case see this blog).
The ruling of the General Court, which endorsed the majority of the
European Commission’s findings, could have transformative implications
for the structure of sports governance in the EU (and beyond).
We have the pleasure to welcome three renowned experts in EU
competition law and sport to analyse with us the wider consequences of
this judgment.
Guest speakers:
Moderators:
Registration HERE
Zoom In webinar series
In December 2020, The Asser International Sports Law Centre in collaboration with Dr Marjolaine Viret launched a new series of zoom webinars on transnational sports law: Zoom In. You can watch
the video recording of our first discussion on the arbitral award
delivered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the Blake
Leeper v. International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) case
on the Asser Institute’s Youtube Channel. Click here to learn more about the Zoom In webinar series.
Editor’s note: Stefano
Bastianon is Associate Professor in EU Law and EU sports law at the
University of Bergamo and lawyer admitted to the Busto Arsizio bar.
1. EU law and the CAS case-law
Bearing in mind these questions, it is possible to
affirm that under EU law, the specificity of sport
i) refers to the inherent characteristics of sport that
set it apart from other economic and social activities and which have to be
taken into account in assessing the compatibility of sporting rules with EU
law; and
ii) under EU law these inherent characteristics of
sport must be considered on a case by
case basis, per the Wouters test
as developed by the ECJ in the Meca Medina ruling.
Both aspects can be found in the CAS case-law too,
although the CAS case-law shows some remarkable differences and peculiarities. From
a general point of view, the application of the principle of specificity of
sport in the CAS case-law represents an aspect of the more general issue
related to the application of EU law by the CAS. However, the purpose of this
paper is not to fully examine if and to what extent the CAS arbitrators apply
EU law rules on free movement and competition; rather, the aim is to analyse
the way the CAS deals with the concept of the specificity of sport,
highlighting similarities and differences compared to the ECJ.
Taking for granted that ‘a CAS panel is not only
allowed, but also obliged to deal with the issues involving the application of
[EU] law’,[1]
as far as the compatibility of sporting rules with EU law is concerned the CAS
case-law shows different degrees of engagement. For instance, in the ENIC
award concerning the so-called UEFA integrity rule, the CAS panel went through
a complete competition-law analysis in perfect harmony with the Wouters et al.
ruling by the ECJ.[2]
On the contrary, in the above-quoted Mutu case, the issue of
compatibility of the FIFA’s transfer regulations with EU competition law was
analysed in a rather simple way, merely stating that the FIFA rules at stake
were not anti-competitive under EU competition law without giving any reason to
support this conclusion.
More recently, in the Galatasaray
and Milan A.C. awards, concerning the
UEFA’s financial fair-play regulations, the CAS applied a detailed analysis of EU competition
law. However, in both cases, according to the CAS the proportionate character
of sanctions listed in the UEFA’s financial fair-play regulations cannot affect
the evaluation of the legitimacy of these regulations under Art. 101 TFEU. This
conclusion represents a clear breaking point with respect to the ECJ case-law,
according to which the evaluation of the restrictive effects of a rule
necessarily presupposes the analysis of the proportionate character of the
sanction imposed in the event of a violation of that rule as well.[3] In
regard to EU free movement, the CAS case-law tends to be less analytical in
terms of the principle of proportionality. For instance, in the RFC Seraing award which concerned both EU free movement and
competition law, the CAS panel mainly focused on the legitimate objectives of
the contested rule (FIFA’s ban on Third-Party Ownership – TPO), merely affirming
that the restrictive measures under EU free movement were justified and
inherent in the pursuit of those objectives.More...
Editor’s
note: Stefano Bastianon is Associate
Professor in EU Law and EU sports law at the University of Bergamo and lawyer
admitted to the Busto Arsizio bar.*
1. Introduction.
The so-called specificity of sport represents one of
the most debated, if not the most debated, but still undefined issue under
European Union (EU) law. A noteworthy peculiarity is that the specificity of
sport is frequently mentioned in several legislative and political documents
issued by EU institutions, however it is not expressly referred to in any
judgment by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).Conversely, the Court of
Arbitration for Sport (CAS) case-law on Art. 17 of FIFA Regulations on status
and transfer of players (RSTP) has repeatedly and expressly referred to the
specificity of sport.[1] Apparently, the concept of
specificity of sport has different meanings and purposes in the ECJ and CAS
jurisprudence. In this blog (divided in two parts), I will try to analyse those
two different meanings and to what extent the CAS case-law is consistent with
the concept of specificity of sport as elaborated under EU law. More...
Editor’s note:
Thomas Terraz is a fourth year LL.B. candidate at the International and
European Law programme at The Hague University of Applied Sciences with a
specialisation in European Law. Currently he is pursuing an internship at the
T.M.C. Asser Institute with a focus on International and European Sports Law.
1. Introduction
On
March 05, the T.M.C. Asser Institute hosted ‘Mega-sporting events and human
rights: What role can EU sports diplomacy play?’ a Multiplier Sporting Event
organized in the framework of a European research project on ‘Promoting a
Strategic Approach to EU Sports Diplomacy’. This project funded by the European
Commission through its Erasmus+ program aims to help the EU adopt a strategic approach to sports
diplomacy and to provide evidence of instances where sport can help amplify EU
diplomatic messages and forge better relations with third countries. In
particular, Antoine Duval from the Asser
Institute is focusing on the role of EU sports diplomacy to strengthen human rights in the
context of mega sporting events (MSE) both in Europe and abroad. To this end,
he organized the two panels of the day focusing, on the one hand, on the ability
of sport governing bodies (SGB) to leverage their diplomatic power to promote
human rights, particularly in the context of MSEs and, on the other, on the
EU’s role and capacity to strengthened human rights around MSEs. The following
report summarizes the main points raised during the discussions. More...
Editor’s
note: Thomas Terraz is a fourth year LL.B.
candidate at the International and European Law programme at The Hague
University of Applied Sciences with a specialisation in European Law. Currently
he is pursuing an internship at the T.M.C. Asser Institute with a focus on
International and European Sports Law.
1. Introduction
As we begin plunging into a new decade, it can be helpful to look
back and reflect on some of the most influential developments and trends from
2019 that may continue to shape international sports law in 2020 and beyond. Hence,
this piece will not attempt to recount every single sports law news item but
rather identify a few key sports law stories of 2019 that may have a continued
impact in the 2020s. The following sections are not in a particular order.More...
Editor’s
note: Thomas Terraz is a third year LL.B.
candidate at the International and European Law programme at The Hague
University of Applied Sciences with a specialisation in European Law. Currently
he is pursuing an internship at the T.M.C. Asser Institute with a focus on
International and European Sports Law.
1.
Introduction
The
organizational structure of sports in Europe is distinguished by its
pyramid structure which is marked by an open promotion and relegation system. A
truly closed system, without promotion and relegation, is unknown to Europe,
while it is the main structure found in North American professional sports
leagues such as the NFL, NBA and the NHL. Recently, top European football clubs
along with certain members of UEFA have been debating different possibilities
of introducing
a more closed league system to European
football. Some
football clubs have even wielded the threat of
forming an elite closed breakaway league. Piercing through these intimidations
and rumors, the question of whether a closed league system could even survive
the scrutiny of EU competition law remains. It could be argued that an
agreement between clubs to create a completely closed league stifles
competition and would most likely trigger the application of Article 101 and
102 TFEU.[1]
Interestingly, a completely closed league franchise system has already
permeated the European continent. As outlined in my
previous blog, the League of Legends European
Championship (LEC) is a European e-sports competition that has recently
rebranded and restructured this year from an open promotion and relegation
system to a completely closed franchise league to model its sister competition
from North America, the League Championship Series. This case is an enticing
opportunity to test how EU competition law could apply to such a competition
structure.
As
a preliminary note, this blog does not aim to argue whether the LEC is a ‘real’
sport competition and makes the assumption that the LEC could be considered as
a sports competition.[2]
More...
Editor’s
note: Thomas Terraz is a third year LL.B.
candidate at the International and European Law programme at The Hague
University of Applied Sciences with a specialisation in European Law. Currently
he is pursuing an internship at the T.M.C. Asser Institute with a focus on
International and European Sports Law.
1.
Introduction
Christmas has come very early
this year for the EU sports law world in the form of the Court of Justice of
the European Union’s (CJEU) judgment in
TopFit eV, Daniele Biffi v Deutscher Leichtathletikverband eV by exclusively analyzing the case on the
basis of European citizenship rights and its application to rules of sports
governing bodies that limit their exercise. The case concerned an Italian
national, Daniele Biffi, who has been residing in Germany for over 15 years and
participates in athletic competitions in the senior category, including the
German national championships. In 2016, the Deutscher Leichtathletikverband
(DLV), the German Athletics Federation, decided to omit a paragraph in its
rules that allowed the participation of EU nationals in national championships
on the same footing as German citizens. As a result, participation in the
national championship was subject to prior authorization of the organizers of
the event, and even if participation was granted, the athlete may only compete
outside of classification and may not participate in the final heat of the
competition. After having been required to compete out of classification for
one national championship and even dismissed from participating in another, Mr.
Biffi and TopFit, his athletics club based in Berlin, brought proceedings to a German
national court. The national court submitted a request for a preliminary ruling
to the CJEU in which it asked essentially whether the rules of the DLV, which
may preclude or at least require a non-national to compete outside
classification and the final heat, are contrary to Articles 18, 21 and 165
TFEU. Articles 18 and 21 TFEU, read together, preclude discrimination on the
basis of nationality against European citizens exercising their free movement.
The underlying (massive) question here is whether these provisions can be
relied on by an amateur athlete against a private body, the DLV.
Covered in a previous blog, the Advocate General’s (AG) opinion addressed the case from an
entirely different angle. Instead of tackling the potentially sensitive
questions attached with interpreting the scope of European citizenship rights,
the opinion focused on the application of the freedom of establishment because
the AG found that participation in the national championships was sufficiently
connected to the fact Mr. Biffi was a professional trainer who advertised his
achievements in those competitions on his website. Thus, according to the AG,
there was a sufficient economic factor to review the case under a market freedom.
The CJEU, in its decision, sidelined this approach and took the application of
European citizenship rights head on.
The following will dissect the
Court’s decision by examining the three central legal moves of the ruling: the
general applicability of EU law to amateur sport, the horizontal applicability
of European citizenship rights, and justifications and proportionality
requirements of access restrictions to national competitions. More...