Whose interests? Which solidarity? Challenges of developing a European Super League

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s, rumours of a European Super League (ESL), comprised of the major clubs from England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, have mounted. According to these rumours, this new league would break away from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Many clubs would operate outside the current European federative system, abandoning their national leagues and football federations. An ESL thus conceived would present a menacing alternative to the UEFA Champions League (UCL) and, depending on the format of the ESL, national competitions such as leagues and cups. In this article, we draw on literature in the fields of philosophy and sport law to identify legal and ethical challenges that would result from creating an ESL. Our goal is not to provide exhaustive analyses of the identified challenges. Rather, we aim to examine the challenges to uncover intersections among sport law, sport ethics, and European football.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

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2. Ibid., 436.

3. Ibid., 448.

4. Ibid., 443.

5. Brockmeier and Carbaugh, Narrative and Identity, 10.

6. Ross, “Competition Law and Labor Markets”.

7. Pijetlovic, EU Sports Law and Breakaway Leagues in Football.

8. The White Paper on Sport declares, “In order to assess the compatibility of sporting rules with EU law, the Commission considers the legitimacy of the objectives pursued by the rules, whether any restrictive effects of those rules are inherent in the pursuit of the objectives and whether they are proportionate to them. Legitimate objectives pursued by sport organisations may relate, for example, to the fairness of sporting competitions, the uncertainty of results, the protection of athletes” health, the promotion of the recruitment and training of young athletes, financial stability of sport clubs/teams or a uniform and consistent exercise of a given sport’.

9. Martín, La libertad de empresa; Preston, “Freedom, Markets, and Voluntary Exchange”.

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11. Buelga, “Constitución económica y modelo social europeo”.

12. “How Football Unites Europe”.

13. King, The European Ritual.

14. Niemann and Brand, “The UEFA Champions League”.

15. Pyta and Havemann, European Football and Collective Memory.

16. Alpan and Schwell, “The European Football Championship”, 12.

17. Clarifying these issues is beyond the scope of this paper. For in-depth analyses on Europeization, see Chryssochoou, “Theorizing European Integration”; Michalski,“What Holds Europe Together?”; Ossewaarde,“Theorizing European Societies”.

18. Fligstein and Fligstein, Euroclash; Kentrotis, “European Governance”.

19. Cited in Vonnard, Creating a United Europe of Football.

20. Vonnard, “From Mitropa Cup to UEFA Cup”.

21. Niemann and Brand, “The UEFA Champions League”.

22. Brown, “European Football and the European Union”, 142.

23. Cox, Hills, and Kennedy, “Myths of Nation in the Champions League”, 675.

24. Smith, La passion du sport.

25. Millward, “‘We’ve All Got The Bug For Euro-Aways’”, 387.

26. Ibid, 391.

27. Benoit, “The Politicization of Football”.

28. Pijetlovic, EU Sports Law and Breakaway Leagues in Football.

29. “European Parliament Resolution of 29 March 2007 on the Future of Professional Football in Europe (2006/2130(INI))”, Article B.

30. “White Paper on Sport”, Article 1.

31. Pilger, “The Pros and Cons of a European Superleague”.

32. Solberg and Gratton, “Would European Soccer Clubs Benefit from Playing in a Super League?”.

33. Holt, “The Ownership and Control of Elite Club Competition in European Football”.

34. “Uefa Set to Introduce Third European Club Competition from 2021–22”.

35. Kleinman, “European Premier League”.

36. “Barcelona President Bartomeu Resigns”.

37. Christenson, “Timeline”.

38. “Leading European Football Clubs Announce New Super League Competition”.

39. Panja,“‘You Are In or You Are Out’, FIFA Tells Super League Clubs”.

40. Smith, “Outrage About European Super League Is Muffled by Our Cheers”.

41. “All Six English Clubs Leave Super League”.

42. “Soccer-Real, Barca, Juve Denounce ‘intolerable’ Pressure to Abandon Super League”.

43. Slater, ‘Was the Super League Illegal?

44. UEFA.com, “Uefa Media Statement”.

45. See art. 11.4 in FIFA statutes.

46. Baddeley, L’association sportive face au droit; Zen-Ruffinen, Droit du sport/Piermarco Zen-Ruffinen.

47. Weatherill, “The EU’s Legislative Competence in the Field of Sport”.

48. Calhoun, “Constitutional Patriotism and the Public Sphere”; Jones, “The Politics of Europe 2004”.

49. Barsch, “The Path of European Football. A Level Playing Field for Only 90 Minutes”.

50. Pijetlovic, EU Sports Law and Breakaway Leagues in Football.

51. Kentrotis, “European Governance”.

52. Cox, Hills, and Kennedy, “Myths of Nation in the Champions League”; Mittag and Legrand, “Towards a Europeanization of Football? Historical Phases in the Evolution of the UEFA European Football Championship”.

53. “White Paper on Sport”, Art 4.1 (our emphasis).

54. Moreno-Lax, “Solidarity’s Reach”.

55. Meulen, Arts, and Muffels, “Solidarity, Health and Social Care in Europe Introduction to the Volume”, 1.

56. Scholz, Political Solidarity, 17.

57. This core meaning traces back to the origins of the term in the Roman Republic, where it meant “solidus” (i.e. solid, dense, tight, dense, or united). See Wildt, “Solidarity”.

58. Bayertz, “Four Uses of ‘Solidarity’”, 5.

59. Jaeggi, “Solidarity and Indifference”, 288.

60. Ibid.

61. Hussain, “The Common Good”.

62. Chryssochoou, Theorizing European Integration.

63. UEFA.com, “UEFA. View Our Full Mission and Pillars”.

64. UEFA, “UEFA Financial Report 2019/20”.

65. See Pijetlovic, EU Sports Law and Breakaway Leagues in Football, 35.

66. King, The European Ritual, 155.

67. UEFA, “UEFA Financial Report 2019/20”, 9.

68. Kovacs, “Between Resentment and Indifference”.

69. Barsch, “The Path of European Football. A Level Playing Field for Only 90 Minutes”, 225.

70. “European Council Nice 7–10 December 2000: Conclusions of the Presidency (Annexes)”.

71. Pijetlovic, EU Sports Law and Breakaway Leagues in Football, 275.

72. Pijetlovic, 275.

73. See European Commission, “The Helsinki Report on Sport”.

74. European Parliament, “Motion for a European Parliament Resolution on EU Sports Policy: Assessment and Possible Ways Forward”.

75. European Parliament.

76. UEFA, “Vision Europe. The Direction and Development of European Football over the next Decade”.

77. Binder and Findlay, “The Effects of the Bosman Ruling on National and Club Teams in Europe”, 125.

78. Ramchandani et al., “A Longitudinal and Comparative Analysis of Competitive Balance in Five European Football Leagues”, 276.

79. King, The European Ritual, 90.

80. Cited in Ibid, 153.

81. Thorpe, “The Big Boys Tow the Line”.

82. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalization and Sport, 119.

83. Menary, “Few Clubs Dominate Europe’s Football Leagues”.

84. Conn, “Champions League Is for the Elite Few – and Uefa Will Struggle to Change It”.

85. King, The European Ritual, 144.

86. Cited in King, The European Ritual, 145.

87. Reuters, “Perez Urges Football to Embrace Change amid Talk of a Super League”.

88. King, The European Ritual, 141.

89. Ibíd., 157.

90. Ibid.

91. Eckard, “The Uncertainty-of-Outcome Hypothesis and the Industrial Organization of Sports Leagues”; Pawlowski and Nalbantis, “Competition Format, Championship Uncertainty and Stadium Attendance in European Football – a Small League Perspective”; Schreyer, Schmidt, and Torgler, “Game Outcome Uncertainty and Television Audience Demand”.

92. Wagner, Storm, and Cortsen, “Commercialization, Governance Problems, and the Future of European Football – Or Why the European Super League Is Not a Solution to the Challenges Facing Football”, 324–25.

93. Prescott, “EU’s Top Court Rules Spanish Fooball Clubs Received Illegal State Aid”.

94. Smith, “Outrage About European Super League Is Muffled by Our Cheers”.

95. Olsson and Swart, “The Financial Landscape of European Football”.

96. European Parliament, “Motion for a European Parliament Resolution on EU Sports Policy: Assessment and Possible Ways Forward”, 7.

97. European Parliament, 16.

98. Hoehn et al., “The Americanization of European Football”.

99. Burg, Football Business.

100. McTague, “How America Ruined Soccer”; Hoehn et al., “The Americanization of European Football”.

101. For instance, in 2013, the EC released a report indicating that football clubs spend around $3 billion a year on player transfers, less than 2% of that money trickles down to smaller clubs. Cit in Laskowski, “Solidarity Compensation Framework in Football Revisited”, 158.