Madrid court dismisses Uefa’s appeal against European Super League

MADRID court dismisses Uefa’s appeal, and finds in favour of the request made by the promoters of the European Super League

A court in Madrid, on Friday, July 30, dismissed Uefa’s appeal against the promotors of the European Super League, leaving Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Juventus free to continue their quest to create this league, even after the original attempt collapsed dramatically within 72 hours of being announced, as nine out of the twelve clubs involved, pulled out.

A statement from the three remaining clubs said on Friday, “The court backs the request made by the promoters of the European Super League, dismisses Uefa’s appeal, and confirms its warning to Uefa that failure to comply with its ruling shall result in fines and potential criminal liability”, and went on to say that Uefa must now, “unwind the actions taken against all sides involved in the ESL”, as they announced their intention of continuing with the ambitious project.

Uefa had originally threatened all sorts of sanctions against the twelve clubs who had put their names forward in April this year, to be part of the ESL, but in June, when the case was passed to the European Court of Justice, they paused the action, presumably in anticipation of the result of the court’s finding.

When the ESL was announced, the backlash was incredible, with fans of the English clubs staging demonstrations at their respective grounds, and all six English clubs – Man City, Man United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Tottenham – withdrew in a matter of days, along with Inter Milan, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid, with all nine clubs being issued fines by Uefa in May, and the English clubs even going so far as to pay an extra ‘goodwill gesture’ between them, of £22m to Uefa in June.

Florentino Perez, the president of Real Madrid, was named as the founding chairman of the European Super League, and he said on Friday, in a statement from the three remaining clubs, “Clubs participating in European competitions have the right to govern their own competitions. The case will be assessed by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, which shall review Uefa’s monopolistic position over European football”.

The statement continued, “We are pleased that going forward we will no longer be subject to Uefa’s ongoing threats. We are aware that there are elements of our proposal that should be reviewed and, of course, can be improved through dialogue and consensus. We remain confident in the success of a project that will be always compliant with European Union laws”, as reported by bbc.com.

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