Red Cards for the Referees: EU Competition Law Takes on Football’s Gatekeepers
“A battle for the soul of European football.” That was how the Financial Times characterized the Super League crisis of April 2021, when 12 of Europe’s wealthiest football clubs announced their intention to break away from the existing competition structure and form a closed league of their own.
The backlash was immediate: fan protests erupted across Europe, political leaders issued condemnations, and both the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Fédération Internationale des Associations de Football (FIFA) threatened severe sanctions. Within days, most clubs withdrew.
Yet the episode laid bare a question that has been simmering beneath the surface of professional sports for decades, and which recent developments in EU competition law have brought into sharp focus: who has the right to control sport, and on what legal basis can such control be exercised?