The role FIFA will play in the battle for the Super League is also fascinating. Its president, Gianni Infantino, has spoken in recent years of creating new competitions to increase interest in football around the world. As part of that push, he supported a 20-team Super League in Africa. We create organic branded assets to increase player engagement and advertiser ROI through a fully virtual production studio. The battle to prosecute or prevent a breakaway European football super-league took shape on Monday, hours after 12 of the sport`s richest and most popular teams announced late Sunday night that they would form one. At the end of April 2021, following a request for provisional measures from the Super League, the Madrid court issued a protective order against FIFA and UEFA (No. 14/2021), to order them not to take any action or make statements that could hinder the creation of the Super League project, not to impose or threaten fines, including disciplinary, the clubs involved, their members and officers, and not to exclude these clubs and their members and managers from national and international football competitions in which they are entitled to participate. The Court extended this order to organisations linked to FIFA and UEFA (e.g. national confederations and leagues). The founding members of a league that would reshape football have warned sports leaders they will fight any attempt to block their plans. Nevertheless, with the support of some top club leaders, he is entering the next phase of the battle for control of European football. Nasser al-Khelaifi, the president of French champions Paris Saint-Germain, was among the officials who voted to change the Champions League, and he resisted efforts to lure PSG, a club with some of the best players in the world, to the new league. Meanwhile, UEFA on Monday ratified the biggest changes to the Champions League since 1992.
And then Ceferin held a press conference in which he directly targeted the rival league. LONDON – Superclubs have appealed to lawyers. The president of European football reacted and called the team captains “snakes and liars”. And the fans don`t want any of that. Europe`s biggest clubs have long been frustrated with sharing the wealth created by tournaments where they are the biggest attraction, and discussions about a new league began long before the pandemic. Documents leaked in 2019 showed that Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, architect of the current plan, had attempted to create an earlier iteration of a competition with the biggest teams. We are a full-service cloud studio that produces compelling game content for live streams and social channels to achieve full campaign goals. However, major changes to the Champions League could now become unnecessary if the dissident clubs manage to get what they want and get on the pitch in a competition they hoped to start as early as this summer.
Their urgency stems from their funding; Investment bank JPMorgan Chase has provided four billion euros in debt capital for the league`s launch, but that depends on the group getting a broadcast deal. The plan threatens to reshape the economy of European football, from wealthy Premier League clubs to smaller clubs in every corner of the continent, funneling billions of dollars into a handful of wealthy elite teams. It would be one of the biggest transfers of wealth in the history of sport, jeopardising the future of major events like the Champions League and threatening the existence of domestic leagues and small clubs left behind. Hours later, Aleksander Ceferin, the president of UEFA, European football`s governing body, used his first public appearance to denounce the group behind the plan, vowing to take harsh action if it did not change course. He raised the possibility of banning players from participating teams from events such as the World Cup and other tournaments, and threatened to ban rebel clubs from their national leagues. Sunday`s announcement, he said, amounts to “spitting football fans in the face.” Rumours of the creation of the breakaway competition, which aims to add three additional permanent founding members to an annual league of 20 teams, prompted FIFA in January to bow to pressure from UEFA and issue a statement threatening serious repercussions for players and clubs involved in an unauthorised tournament. FIFA on Sunday issued a statement of “disapproval” of the secession plan, but notably did not reiterate the threat to expel the participants. The club-agreed Super League – an alliance of top-tier teams that conceptually fit closed leagues such as the NFL and NBA rather than the current football model – would result in the most significant restructuring of elite European football since the creation of the European Cup (now the Champions League) in the 1950s. At this point, outrage spread. In Germany, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund – clubs seen as potential members of the splinter league – have distanced themselves from the plan. In France, Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Ander Herrera lamented “that the rich steal what people have created”.
In Spain, La Liga has called a meeting of its clubs, but will hold it without the three teams – Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid – who have agreed to join the Super League. In the letter, the group said its urgency was due to the huge losses accumulated as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The sight of matches played in cavernous but empty stadiums has become the norm, and restrictions on public gatherings mean hundreds of millions of dollars in goal revenue are lost across all leagues in Europe, while broadcasters have also clawed back huge sums of money from leagues and competition organisers. Stella Riberti, Sports Law Lawyer, Studio Legale Withers (Italy) – The practice focuses on sports and media, advising athletes, agents, coaches, clubs, leagues and companies operating in the sports industry on a variety of sports law matters, including assistance on contractual and regulatory matters and representing clients in international sports arbitration. It is more than an obligation: it is an element of conscience. Either you have it or you don`t, otherwise it ends up in greenwashing. Many companies make ESG responsible for communication and marketing, but this is not the case with LCA. Many years ago, we formed a committee called “Under 30” made up of young employees who speak directly to the board, specifically on how to develop a path to sustainability at LCA.
John Mehrzad QC, Lawyer and Sports Group Leader, Littleton Chambers (dispute resolution, trade restriction, employment) – practices primarily in sports law and commercial protection law. His sports law practice focuses on financial disputes, including claims between clubs, managers, players and intermediaries/agents, and regulatory matters, including disciplinary measures, equality and discrimination, selection, classification and doping allegations. He is regularly appointed as an FA Rule K or EFL referee (often on a single basis), is a panel member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (in English and French), Sport Resolutions and the League Managers Association. He was a defender selected for the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. He is a mentor to the legal department of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic/Paralympic Games. LCA also owns LCA Ventures, a company we founded on a “fairness commission”. We had supported Italy`s largest industrial incubator when we realized that it was more productive for many start-ups to donate equity than to be burdened with fees. In addition, we have started investing in sustainable companies such as Tree-to-Scope, an Israeli company that provides water to trees and saves water in countries where a liter of water travels a long way. LCA Ventures also invests in education and other areas. He told them it was not too late to come back from the abyss. Although relations have been damaged, he said, he promised to act professionally for the benefit of European football. While he felt betrayed by the “greed, selfishness and narcissism” of some of those involved, he didn`t want to make things personal – with the possible exception of Agnelli.
Ceferin is the godfather of Agnelli`s youngest child.